After completing 71 locks in 33 miles (out of 220 locks in 230 miles on our journey north) we are looking forward to a glorious 29 miles of locks free cruising through Birmingham, to let my achey muscles recover. Hockley Heath was a useful stopping off point with a fantastic, if expensive butchers, a good Coop and providing dreams of a faster mode of transport at the Maclaren garage.
If you cant see the price tag, you cant afford it.
Once we had passed Dickens Heath, a pristine new town created in the 1980s as a dormitory serving Solihul.
Dickens Heath
We noticed the amount of graffiti and debris in the canal starting to increase. When this fridge sinks its going to be a real hazard to boaters.
a few spoiling it for many
But urban areas always have the potential to surprise and interest us. We’re used to seeing Buzzards soaring in the skies but rarely get a chance to see them sitting watching us sail by.
A buzzard
Even more unusual is a Guillotine Lock at the end of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal.
Kings Norton Stop Lock
It wasn’t built to chop off the heads off any boater not paying their toll, but as a Stop lock to conserve water between the Stratford-upon-Avon canal and the Birmingham and Worcester canal. (And as a pinch point to force boaters to stop and pay their tolls.) These space-saving locks were quicker to opperate because they didn’t need paddles opening to alter the water level.
Goodbye Stratford-upon-Avon canal and hello Birmingham and Worcester canal
149 locks in196 miles still to go to reach Liverpool
Decisions decisions which way should we go to Birmingham,
Birmingham or Stratford.
Plan A- carry straight on up the Grand Union Canal via Knowle and Aston Junction exploring a new stretch of water
Plan A to carry on up the Grand Union canal
No, it looks like Plan B via Lapworth
Or Plan B turn left onto the Stratford Canal
We’d heard a rumour about a stoppage along planned route A so decided not to risk it. And besides, choosing route B cut 11 locks off our total journey. Despite the mindless graffiti on the bridge, Kingswood junction is a very pretty place with the Kingswood link branch joining the Stratford upon Avon Canal.
Kingswood Junction
And the Stratford canal is all single locks
I know I’m a bit obsessed about the number of locks we’re doing, but that’s my achy muscles talking and I knew there were 19 to get to the top of the Lapworth flight. But as if to encourage me, the clouds dispersed and spring sunshine spurred us on.
Up the Lapworth flight
This is the route we took last year coming south on our way to the Thames. And the Lapworth flight is where my phone took a leap in for a swim, never to be seen again, it didn’t stop me peering into the infamous lock 8 just in case I could rescue it.
surprise surprise the naughty phone remains in Navy Jones’s Locker. So we were able to marvel at some of the interesting historical structures instead. The bridges on the Stratford canal are metal and split to allow traditional horse drawn boats to pass through efficiently. On Bridge 32 there is a rotating wheel that helps guide the pulling ropes from one side of the canal to the other as the towpath changes side.
bridge 32
We made it up to Lapworth top lock and settled in to enjoy a few days of sunshine at Hockley Heath.
top lock 2
And the prospect of more than 20 miles without any more locks.
With the mighty Hatton Flight looming ahead of us and with the prospect of company we didn’t linger to enjoy the delights of Royal Leamington Spa. For such a historic Georgian spa town, the canal through Leamington is a bit of a perfunctory back water. At one point we wondered if we would actually get through when we saw this leviathan looming ahead. Ok, we knew we’d fit, but there wasn’t clearance for a similar 14foot widebeam to pass. We really don’t know how they would have handled that situation.
Nice to live in, just not ideal to cruise in
The mile or so between Leamington and Warwick is a gift for boaters with Morrisons, Lidl and Tesco all having mooring right outside. We languished at Lidl whilst the passing storm clouds attempted to deal with the water shortages
myton visitor mooring, (aka outside Lidl)
We cruised through Warwick only stopping one night. Another place where the canal is not valued as an asset to the town if the state of the towpath is anything to go by. Until you get to the Hatton Flight, which is a real gem for gongoozlers and historians. Although boaters know it as the Stairway to Heaven because 21 double locks is such hard work. We struck lucky, no rain and finding ourselves a lock buddy to start the day.
We’d planned to moor up on the armco after the fourth lock so our family could join us, but the lock keeper told us to moor after the eleventh, on the bollards at Asylum Wharf. We were a bit reluctant because it was the lock landing, and it’s not good etiquette, but he assured us traffic was light and he’d make sure the gates were open so if anyone came through they wouldn’t need to stop. And a spectacular view
Heather and Ant were just passing through so they stayed for breakfast and we were on our way an hour later
I cant think why, but they didn’t offer to crew for us up the remaining 10 locks but we had another secret weapon. Friends who live locally. Ironically because of how well maintained the flight is, and the willing volunteer lockies, we flew up the remaining locks in super fast time
and James only arrived in time to do the last 3 locks, but never the less, we set him to work.
He’s a willing volunteer
As his reward, he was allowed to take the helm as we cruised
on through the haunted Shrewley tunnel.
no ghosts today
All in all we’d had a fantastic day, all our stars aligned
5 miles, 21 double locks, 1 tunnel and 2 lots of visitors- we slept well that night.
There’s a lorra lorra locks between us and Liverpool, which is our summer goal. From Norton Junction, its 228 miles and 229 locks into Salthouse dock . We’re not planning the most direct route, this way we can call in on friends and experience a new canal on the journey.
screenshot from ACCcanal planner
So far we’ve done about 20 miles and 29 locks But thanks to delays with overrunning maintenance its already taken us just over 2 weeks, Perhaps we need to make some friends in Long Itchingham, who seem to have learnt something we haven’t.
However we have enjoyed our journey so far, sharing every single one of these heavy double locks. The Cheeky Pig did the Stockton flight with us.
and the guys who had been repairing the locks were happy to take a break from clearing up their equipment to help us on our way.
I doubt they’re going to sort the tow path out though.
We moored up by the Two Boats at Long Itchingham,
The Two Boats
home to Colecraft boat builder, and a pretty village. Of course we’d rather not have the need for these, but its nice to see a contempory war memorial remembering our fallen.
Snatching a gap in the wind and the rain we completed our journey into Leamington under the watchful eye of Rudi and his crew on The Vicount.
Rudi and crew
Happily trundling slowly along the canals, preserving this gentle way of life, as HS2 looms large at Longhole, by Bridge 31
next stop Hatton Flight, anyone want to come along for the ride, we’ll be going up in the world. (And I have a plentiful supply of bacon butties)
Not sure where we’d end up or if its 87.5 miles or 187.5 miles we turned right at Bulls Bridge to begin our journey back up north. We suspect it should say Braunston, but maybe Birmingham. We settled for a few days in West Drayton soaking up the sunshine,
Opposite the train station at West Drayton
Enjoying the sunsets,
and the sunrises
All of which reminded us that we were still, infact, pointing west, not yet going north. And still just about within the Greater London confines inside the M25. Our autumnal cruising plan is to meander slowly up the Grand Union overwintering around the Milton Keynes area, roughly 50 miles and 67 locks. We decided not to venture down the 5 miles Slough arm, because although it is lock free, having chatted to the local boaters, we weren’t sure we could moor easily. Perhaps we missed an opportunity. Perhaps we’ll do it next time.
Cowley Peachy junction for the Slough Arm
but immediately past the junction we were climbing uphill and the locks, thankfully not all 11 foot deep like Denham deep lock
Thats quite a deep lock
And under some high railway bridges
Denham rail bridge
And past some railway bridges not yet built as HS2 passes over the canal around Harefield. We have to take a deep breath and remind ourselves what an eyesore building the canals must have been in the 18th century, but how glad we are to have them now.
HS2
In the late 1700’s William Capell, 4th Earl of Essex, was similarly concerned when sat of the board for the building of the Grand Junction canal, that would pass through his extensive estate, of Cassiobury and Watford. He insisted on the canal being aesthetically pleasing. And so it is.
With our week on the Eco mooring drawing to a close, we decided to move on to explore the Lee and Stort Navigation. But first we had the treat of being joined by my cousin Diana and her children for the last remaining 3 miles of the Regent’s canal. First stop the water point
Thats Diana awarding Eric 5 points for his dancing skills
Then the excitment of working the locks
I think this is one for the caption competition
And the thrill of being permitted to drive the boat
I think Eric’s worried he’ll be out of a job soon
And finally the reward of lunch together
Diana, Rose, Gabe and Bea
Before they had to say goodbye.
It had taken us nearly 3 hours to do less than 2 miles, but it was a perfect start to the day. We glibly thought we’d moor up soon….
….but that was before we had fully comprehended the dire state of mooring on the Regent’s canal. We were crawling along past double moored boats for as far as the eye could see, past Victoria Park and onto the Hertford Union Canal. With the infamous Hertford Union Bottom lock to transit. We had been warned it was flooded….
Yes thats all from the overflowing lock
But usually the bywash of a lock has its own dedicated offside channel not shared with the towpath.
I had no choice but to wade through this dirty canal water, not knowing what was in it, or if i would be able to empty enough water out in order to open the gate.
Hertford Union Bottom lock
Miraculously, we managed to get through, sympathizing with the local’s who informed me, with resignation that “its been fixed” At least there were still some things to smile about,
Street Art at the Junction
but we were now on the Lee and Stort Navigation, heading north. We ploughed on, which seems an inappropriate word for a canal but the density of duckweek and debris meant it really was hard going, the double moored boats continued but eventually, 3 hours after we had wanted to stop, we found a 60′ gap to squeeze into, baton down the hatches and fall asleep exhausted.
We rose early as our Teddington Lock booking was for 7am.
Looking back to say goodbye to the Thames that we had spent 4 months enjoying
Eric had plugged in the VHS radio and erected the aerial, to comply with the Port of London Authority (PLA) bylaws
Looking forward
And off we set
Under the footbridge and into the lock
We were sharing the lock with 2 other boats, also going to Brentford. And as they had both done the journey before, were happy to take the lead and keep us in view.
And being released
Teddington Lock is actually a triple lock system, the “great” lock or barge lock accommodates the largest boats such as the floating gin palaces, the launch lock for the little boats like Firecrest and the skiff lock, which is a tiny narrow affair for the rowers. Although there are lockies on duty 24/7, they hold back the majority of boats until the tide is high and turning so that we are carried with the down stream flow instead of fighting against it. Hence the need to book our passage. Because we were being given safety instructions, I forgot to take many photos, and because the tide was high, it was more like going through a 6 inch stop lock than the colossal deep trench that we had seen the evening before.
Soon we were on our way, unfortunately the weather was not obliging with the view, and we can only imagine what Ham house up on its hill ought to have looked like.
Ham House, up on the hill
We soon approached Richmond Bridge
Richmond Bridge
And then Richmond half tide lock. This is a barrage lock that manages tidal river levels, you can pass under the designated arch freely 2 hours either side of high tide, at other times, you have to pay a fee to use the manned lock.
Richmond half tide lock
We duly went under the arch and continued speeding downstream. The journey from Teddington to Brentford is about 5 miles, and it had taken us an hour. To put it in perspective, on the canals we travel at roughly 2.5miles per hour. The london skyline was now visible, but we also saw our lead boat turning left.
The london skyline
And the glint of the stainless steel sculpture known as Liquidity that was our marker point to guide us back onto the Grand Union Canal
Liquidity, where the Grand Union Canal joins the Thames
Its quite a tricky manouver to take a narrowboat across the river which has both a downstream and a tidal flow to compete against, but Eric put full throttle on and Firecrest behaved beautifully. We didnt overshoot or get swept downstream backwards. But oh what a difference, from a flowing river that was easily 100m wide, to a much narrower channel, which at this point is still tidal, and into Thames Lock 101. Thames lock also needs to be booked to accommodate the tide levels.
And then we were here, back onto the canal system, goodbye Enviroment agency, hello CRT, hello duckweed, hand cranked locks and urban jellyfish (aka plastic bags and other detritus)
The River Wey Navigation is a magical part of Surrey. As a visitor, you leave the wide and busy River Thames at Shepperton and enter a cool quiet haven of peace and tranquillity.
Entering the Wey from the Thames
But nearly 400 years ago, it was quite a different matter. Sir Richard Weston realised that the meandering backwater could be made navigable (and profitable) by adding canal sections to straighten it out a bit. The River Wey became a “navigation” in 1653. It was a mini motorway in its own right, over a 100 years before the Canal Mania swept through the country. Entrepreneurs took advantage of being able to transport their goods more quickly and reliably by barge. Flour, corn, wood and gunpowder went to London and on the return, coal was sent for use in making the gunpowder. In the late 17th century 4000 trips were made carrying timber to help rebuild London after the Great Fire of 1666. The River Wey is now managed by the National Trust and there are some interesting wiki pages that talk about its history. A lot of the old mill buildings are still standing, although mostly converted into rather nice homes.
Coxes mill lock
We joined the Wey at Thames Lock, where we paid our 3 week fee of £105.30 (with discount for being NT members) and were lent a specific sized windlass to work the 17 locks, on the 20 navigable miles up to Godalming.
Thames lock ( as we left the Wey)
Most but not all of the locks were in excellent condition,
Now that’s some Jacuzzi
We also came across a very rare turf sided lock, (as opposed to the usually seen stone built locks) the Walsham Gates are now a flood lock so are generally left open.
Walsham gates
One of the nice things about the Wey is that you always leave the gates open as the boat exits a lock. Which makes double locks a lot easier.
Millmead lock
Although at Millmead lock in Guildford, there’s no shortage of willing helpers. We managed to arrive in Guildford just as the temperatures were threatening to top 40° so although we had a brief trip up the beautiful High Street, we didnt linger.
Guildford High St
As the temperatures soared, by far the best place to be was on the water.
What is there to say, except Wow
One of our favourite mooring spots was on the meadow near Newark Lock and Ripley. We were kept entertained by the youngsters paddle boarding, and it didn’t take me long to pluck up the courage to ask to borrow one for a go. If we cruised here regularly, I would definitely be hankering after my own board. Its good fun. There was lots of entertainment to be enjoyed on the Wey, we were never short of people to watch, and more than once we were the ones being watched
Im watching you watching me
In our opinion we were enjoying a perfect holiday existance, warm and relaxed, so I got to spend a lot of time sitting ourside spinning, and chatting to the many people who stopped to enquire what I was doing.
This is my idea of a real treat, being able to sit outside and spin
the evenings were balmy, with some beautiful sunsets
Red sky at night
And the mornings equally etherial
Followed by red sky in the morning
Not all of it entirely peaceful as the M25 follows the route for a mile around Byfleet.
A nicer way to see the M25
but most of the time we felt as if we had been supplanted into a Constable painting
One of the many nice things about cruising on rivers is that the locks are often manned
Always happy to help
with someone keeping an eye open for those brave enough to pass through
and invariably a doddle compared to canal locks even if the lockie isnt on duty
The Upper Thames lockies use a long pole and hook to open and close the far side. Its very impressive.
Is it a pole or a jousting lance
But what’s also impressive is that the lock keepers job comes with a cottage,
Grafton lock cottage
Which is ok until you remember these guys are also only paid for a working week but are on call 24/7 – Unless its lunch time from 1 till 2 every day. However the river seems quiet with not much traffic which is probably why they have enough time to keep their gardens looking good. We think there must be a degree of rivalry over who can have the best topiary Although it looks like the frog wants to eat the tulips.
The Rushey lock frog
Not sure if this is a fancy haircut, or work in progress, either way it made us chuckle
Burscot locks entry
But the winner surely has to be the grafton cat ready to pounce on the swan
I wonder what the swan really thinks
Whilst we were cruising back downstream we became very aware of the air traffic. The escorted jet was bringing Boris back from India, or might have been, because moments before we saw an identical entourage, so one of them must have been a decoy. We think the two flying in parallel might have been in training for mid air refuelling because they really stuck close by each other for the best part of a morning. And the jet on its own, was one of many that we saw, including the Awax reconnaissance planes, checking we had paid for a Thames license. Once we looked at the map and realised how close we were to several RAF bases, the quantity of planes made sense.
They’re definitely on a mission
The swan by the way is sitting on 8 eggs, and the cat is actually hoping for some tuna to swim past.
Back in January we declared our intentions to cruise 110miles south to reach the River Thames in Oxford. 4 months later we have made it. That’s near enough 120 miles 120 days (we added a few miles on doing some of the Birmingham loops)
Highlights January to April
Believe it or not, we didn’t actually cruise a mile every day, but despite a few rough moments, storm Dudley, loosing my phone, loosing all the water in a canal, and recently loosing David, its been a good few months of a new adventure. And about a month later than we thought, we are finally here, leaving the Oxford Canal and going through Dukes Cut onto the River Thames.
Stop lock on Dukes Cut
Duke’s cut was built by George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, to enable him to take advantage of Warwickshire coal, by joining the canal to the river. Today it’s home to a small group of permanent moorers, which could make two way traffic tricky, but we were lucky and didn’t meet anyone.
Think we wil turn right
We hadn’t got the nicest of travelling days to move onto the Thames, but it didn’t take us long to reach Eynsham Lock and a lovely warm welcome from a lock keeper to show us the ropes. We’ve attached our long ropes for locking, got our anchor and mud weights ready to deploy if necessary and rescued the life savers from bottom of the cupboard just in case we fall overboard, so we are river ready. There’s plenty of quirky things to see and as we left the lock, she pointed out the Swinford toll bridge.
Leaving Eynsham Lock
Its one of two toll bridge that remain over the Thames. Motorists have to pay the owner the pricely fee of 5p and endure the privilege of long queues to do so, and regularly campaign to abolish the toll. But with 10000 vehicles using it daily, it doesn’t take a calculator to work out why the owners don’t want to forfeit this tax free golden goose. George III also decreed that no other bridge was allowed to be built within 3 miles of Swinford Bridge.
No Toll, but we do have a Gold Licence
Our next lock Pinkhill, was self service, which gave us a better opportunity to look around and see the wheel wind, so much easier than using a windlass. Raised Red equals paddles open, raised white equal paddles closed.
The weather really wasn’t inspiring for cruising, so we moored up for lunch at the Pinkhill picnic mooring . Another new treat for us knocking pins into a field.
Pinkhill Picnic Mooring
And as soon as we decided to call it a day the sun came out
