Chipping Norton and Crick, by car

The real reason for keeping the car longer was to make a trip to Chipping Norton a lot easier. The unfortunate thing with Chipping Norton is it’s lack of train station, so using public transport involves a bus ride. An hours drive or three hours by train and bus from Lapworth. So for an extra £20 for two more days it made a lot of sense to keep the car.

We were last in Chippy in December to see Panto, it was a bit chilly then to be eating sandwiches sat on a bench, today we opted to sit in the car instead even though it was a lot warmer. Will (Treasure, not Shakespeare) the producer met me and gave me a guided tour around the theatre. The stage is more spacious than I’d imagined, but then there is no Panto set in the way at the moment. I’ll still need a shoe horn to fit everything in, but there will be space for actors to breath backstage, so that was a relief.

I came away with plenty of drawings and a model box of the theatre stage and wings. This is a scale (1:25) model of the building to which I will add a scale model of the set. This will be used by the set builders, director, actors, lighting designers, everyone as reference . They had a very handy box to keep the model safe, but this was several inches bigger than it’s contents so I elected to leave it with them. I can find room on the boat for the model, but not it’s box and Tilly would more than likely want to take up residency in it anyway, chewing the odd corner too!

Whilst I’d been shown round Mick had been to Corbetts Electrical in West Street (handily mentioned in my panto script) to buy some longer cables to connect the new Venus GX in the electrics cupboard. The ones he’d bought at Springwood Haven were fine to connect everything together, but making the cupboard neat and tidy they needed to be longer. Corbetts came up trumps.

Back at Oleanna my first and very important job was to find cupboard space for the modelbox. The cupboard I had in mind was emptied, just the right size, except for a big electrical box at the back of it, which meant I’d have had to reduce already small wing space of the theatre by 2ft 6”! So half my clothes cupboard was emptied, shelf moved up, a perfect fit and with some space for bits and bobs alongside. I was happy now I knew there was a safe place to tuck work away, just one small task of finding somewhere else for half my clothes! It all worked out in the end and we now have two throws covering the sofa as we used to on Lillian, they had been taking up a whole cupboard, so selfish.

With the car for one last evening we first headed over to Hillmorton to pick up some food from the Chippy there and then carried on to Crick. Our friend Lizzie, NB Panda, has bought herself a cottage in the village. We had a quick look round and caught up on each others news. NB Panda is at Cropredy awaiting a trip out onto the Thames up to Lechlade this summer. All too quick we jumped back in the car to drive to the other end of the village. There was just enough space for us on the lane leading to The Moorings where Mikron were performing this evening. Lizzie had planned to join us, but her hay fever was bad and she didn’t want to aggravate her asthma.

NB Tyseley was moored up alongside the restaurant and crowds had already gathered taking up much of the outside seating area. No spare chairs to be seen. I did manage to spot Neil Stittle who was moving chairs around and commandeered two of the last seats.

Revolting Women is all about the Suffragette movement, a subject a touch more serious than a normal Mikron show. Full of songs the show took us through Edwardian history and the events that led to some women getting the vote after WW1. The four actors took on the roles of various women and their families in London and politicians voting in the House of Commons. Lots of hats, voices and faces pulled and that was before a note had come from the trombone! It’s the third Mikron show we’ve seen, an enjoyable evening at a venue with a bit more space than there was at The Rising Sun in Berko last year. If you’ve been to see a Mikron show you will be aware that you don’t pay to get in, but you pay to get out!

Once we’d paid our exit fee and said hello to Marianne we were back in the car. We thought we’d been quick to leave, but others had beaten us to their cars, so we joined the long line. Whenever we sit in traffic like this Mick recounts the night he went to see Tina Turner and how long it took to just leave the car park! At least back then he didn’t take a wrong turning in Warwick (due to lack of road signs), then struggle with Google maps and a road atlas, resorting to a good old fashioned OS map too finally get us back on track.

0 locks, 0 miles by canal,  1 Spring Street, 200 seater, 20 plans, 1 modelbox, 0 modelbox box, 1 tight fit, 1 wardrobe downsized, 2 slightly grotty throws back on display, 1 fish and chips, 2 chicken kebabs, 1 chips, 1 dinky immaculate cottage, 1 Lizzie, 3rd Mikron show, 2 boaters hoping to see their other show this year, 1 left, 0 straight on, 2 many white roads on a white background! 1 long route round Warwick, 1 bored cat, 1 ever so boring day again!

York, but not by boat

Tasty smelling morsels were being put into my magic food bowl Saturday morning. I like my magic food bowl, it magically opens up and produces my evening and morning Dingding without being told to do so, the dingding doesn’t happen like it does when they are here. It just seems to know when I’m hungry. How magic is that?! But then she got another thing out of the bathroom cupboard, I don’t like this bag, it means there will be outside and no feet to keep warm in the morning and it most certainly isn’t magic!

This weekend we’ve been up to York to help celebrate one of Mick’s eldest friends 60th birthday. With a hire car we drove up Saturday morning stopping off to purchase some foody things and some wine when we reached the outskirts of York. Before we crossed town we made a phone call to check that we wouldn’t be arriving at just the wrong time. Mark didn’t know there was to be a party on Saturday (he’d thought something suspicious was going to happen on Sunday) and our arrival at the wrong moment could have blown it. However we had plenty of time to get to the other side of York to Sally and John’s house where balloons greeted us on the gate and if Mark hadn’t twigged by that point, then the number of cars outside the house along with banners would kind of give it away.

Three generations of the Harford family had gathered, all of Mark’s siblings, his four kids and their children, the youngest being 6 weeks old. Other old friends from Scarborough and York were there too.

Mick had spent some of Friday making some Yorkshire Cruncheon (almost flapjack, but with more crunch) to take with us, Harry (Mark’s youngest) had also made some, so a lot of time was spent comparing the two batches.

Mark hadn’t twigged and thought that he was going to The Pipe and Glass near Beverley with some friends for a meal. Instead those friends were absent, but all his family had gathered for a good afternoon and evening of celebrating.

Once the surprise was over we got back in the car and went to check in with a nice Italian couple at our AirB&B, our first time. After removing our shoes we were shown up the stairs to our floor, a bedroom, bathroom and living room all to ourselves for £65, half the price of any B&B or hotel in York this weekend. They started to give us directions of how to get into the city centre and advice on the best route to walk to the Minster. I explained that we both know York very well, me having been born and breed, Mick having worked in the city for many years. We asked if they had any questions about York, they did and we did our best to answer them.

The afternoon back at the party soon turned into the evening and night followed on. Food was consumed (too much by one dog!), wine and stronger drinks drunk, conversation had. A lovely catch up with them all and chance to meet the two youngest members of the family.

I was relieved to pull the amputee card when the drunken party games started. My grip would no way allow me to walk across a rug balancing with my hands on two beer bottles. Young and old tried their best, Jacob aged 6 did quite well, but then he was allowed to cheat. By the time we left everyone was looking tired and a bit merry, including the three dogs.

Our walk back to our accommodation was thankfully dry after some thunder earlier in the evening and we managed to tiptoe up the stairs in stocking feet without disturbing our hosts.

Sunday morning we made full use of the bathroom being connected to mains water and checked out squeaky clean to walk back to retrieve the car.

Everyone was awake so we manage to say goodbye to them all again before heading to find some breakfast in a supermarket cafe. Next port of call was Hobbycraft and WH Smith so that I could stock up on materials to be able to make my panto set model, a new sketch book and have some files to fill with reference pictures. It was then time to leave and wave goodbye to York and head back to the boat.

Oleanna sat where we’d left her a large gap behind her now that boats had moved off. Tilly was so pleased to see us that she immediately went out to explore before I could suggest when she should come home. There was a lot of shouting going on on the towpath from her, maybe that had something to do with us leaving a wrapper from some mackerel in the bin, the boat did whiff a touch!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire car, 2 flipping food bowls, 60th, 1 surprise, 18 blood family, 6 weeks to 66 years, 2 lots of cruncheon, 3 dogs, 1 ravenous (Bliss), 1 elegant (Scout), 1 ponderous and obedient (Archie), 2nd floor to ourselves, 2 pairs of shoes on the ground floor, 1 crescent moon, 1.36 miles walk Pip’s way, 1.32 miles walk Mick’s way, 2nd round of goodbyes, 50p more for scrambled eggs, 2 sheets mount, 1 card, A2 foamcor, A4 sketchbook, 1 ringbinder, 3 wallets, 1 pleased to see us cat, 4 hours to cram in, 4 leg nudges, 1 absent cat, 1 stinky boat, 2 hatches open, 2 sets of doors too!

Lapworth

When we all got up this morning I thought I’d try my charms to see if I could get to spend the morning outside. It’s always worth a try, but this morning there seemed to be no need, one head nudge and I was told ‘Ten Hours Tilly’. I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly so came back from the opening door, ‘Ten Hours, no bringing friends home dead or alive or putting them on the roof for later, no going on other peoples boats, no jump…….’ yada yada yada. TEN HOURS!!!! That’s all that mattered, I was off into the friendly cover. See you later!

We’ve not being cruising long days by any means, but a day staying put was on the cards. After breakfast the Fertan was washed off where it had been left to do it’s job overnight. I applied some filler to where we used to have some press studs for the cratch. Very early on we lost one either side when entering locks as they were positioned just where the bow catches the most, so these we’ve not bothered to replace, so they were sanded back and filler applied to stop the area from rusting. More recently we’d lost a couple more, not sure how, but these are less likely to be knocked off. Mick got our new rivet gun out and replaced them. Once the filler had gone off this was sanded back and primer applied, with a second coat going on the grab rail.

There are going to be more days of not cruising in the next few months as I have some work to do. My Theatre Designers hat has been dug out from behind the freezer and is being dusted off so that I can design this years Panto, Aladdin, for Chipping Norton Theatre. Today I’ve read the first draft of the script. He’s behind you! Oh no he isn’t! Oh yes he is! It doesn’t quite seem right in mid June!

Mick took the opportunity to have a walk up the Lapworth flight. When he reached Lock 11 or there abouts, there’s twenty in the flight after the junction, he spotted a familiar boat, NB Tilly Mint. We’d crossed bows with him the Caldon Canal late last year. The chap on board is a single hander and Micks offer of help was a welcome one. Time to give him a breather so a windlass was handed over. He’d originally planned on pulling up after the top four, but had seen a C&RT chap who said that there would be volunteers on today, so he’d carried on waiting to bump into one, which didn’t happen.

A little after midday I’d just started on Act 2 (Aladdin with the lamp, rich now and got the girl) when there was a knock on the roof. Debby from NB Chuffed had stopped to introduce herself whilst a boat came down the lock above and Dave brought the boat from the one below. We had chance for a short chat before Debby’s windlass services were required. Later on in the afternoon, when Tilly bothered to come home, we walked round the corner to find them and introduce ourselves properly. It was nice to finally meet them, after the last couple of months with us just being ahead or falling behind them on the Severn, G&S and the Avon. Hopefully our paths will cross again later in the year.

So she lied this morning! Ten hours my ….! But I did get to make a new friend popping out of the sideways trees at the right time to meet Debby. She smelt of woofer, but I won’t hold that against her. When they came back from their explore I was allowed out again for another hour. I suppose nine hours isn’t that bad. Yawn! Think I’ll have a lie down now…night…..zzzzz

0 locks, 4 assisted with, 0 miles, 1 outside, 10 9 hours, 2 new press studs, 2 old ones filled, 1st and 2nd coat primer, 1 cratch board to be done another day, 62 pages, 1 lamp, 2 boats, 1 submarine, 2 new boaters met, 47 throws of a ball, 5 friends, 3 trees, 2 other boats (even though she’s not allowed on them!), 1 thug Tilly, 1 bloody paw, 21 poppies.

Lock 29 to Lapworth Lock 22

Our good friends Bridget and Storm have decided to put their narrowboat Blackbird up for sale. They have been spending less and less time aboard and it’s time for them to have new adventures, even so a hard decision. Blackbird was built for continuous cruising in 2010 and has covered much of the system. We’ll miss cruising with Blackbird and The Wasp is now a thing of the past, but I’m sure they’ll come and visit us for a boat fix every now and then.

Here’s a link to Blackbird’s details. http://www.apolloduck.net/569368

We got moving at the same time as others today. One boat came past just as we were about to push off and when we got to the next lock NB Hekla was ready to go too. They had found some rings and slightly deeper water just before the lock so had elected to stop there last night. So we were third in line for the first lock of the day. We helped Hekla up, then the next chap who was on his own, incidentally he’d also had problems with the previous lock. Soon there was another boat behind us.

The chap behind was a bit exacerbated, every single lock on this trip out had been against them. I offered to lift a paddle on locks as we left them if nobody was coming and checked where he planned to get to today, in case he was stopping short of us.

The convoy up towards Lapworth worked well. I think NB Hekla was lifting a paddle for the single hander in front of us and when we arrived I was able to close the gate behind him as he left. As we rose up the second lock Mick waved back at me as there was a boat coming round the bend in front of him under the M40 bridge, so I opened up the gate again and left them to reset the lock for the chap behind.

I went ahead after the next lock to help and then reset it for us, but there was a boat coming, so I signalled back to Mick to leave the gate below. The boat then pulled over some distance away and a crew member hopped off, even though they could have stepped off in the waiting lock that they’d just been waved in to. It then took forever for them to get past one moored boat and the single hander who was waiting patiently. I closed the gate after them and went to chat with the lady. They had been up to Birmingham and had decided the next time they hire they’ll do Birmingham. She was struggling a bit with the paddle so I offered to lend a hand. ‘I only open them half way until we’re half way down’, she accepted my offer. But as I turned to check that her husband was okay I couldn’t see him, where had he gone? Inside right to the front to get something. I waited for him to return so that someone was at the helm should the boat drift backwards, he took his time.

Once down he exited the lock and was far too busy taking photos of the lock cottage to bother steering, so was on full collision course with Oleanna! Mick shouted out and the chap did his best to stop and reposition his boat to avoid us, but then just brought himself back to hit us anyway, at least he’d slowed down some by now!

I’d remembered a nice mooring just below the junction, but the next pound looked inviting and there was space. We had one of those moments where I was sure it was still further ahead and Mick was dubious about my memory. At the next lock I could see up the next two pounds. One boat was moored in the middle of the next one, not leaving enough space and above looked busy too. We carried on and at the second lock there were the trees I’d remembered from December 2013, and one space which was Oleanna sized and in the sun.

Six hours she said, six! Bloomin’ marvelous!!! The field behind the sideways trees is great and there’s a good fence to sharpen my friend finding claws on. What an afternoon. She came out too and I got told to be careful of wet paint.

Mick undid the loose fairlead on the starboard side for us to look at, there was also a small bubble of paint under it. One of the screws had been pulled right through the grabrail, so no just tightening it up again. Under all our deck fittings Finesse has put what I call Black Tack, a substance that never goes off and should stop water from getting under the fittings. It’s a bit like chewing gum and takes a bit to clean off, but working slowly I collected it to be reused and cleaned off the residue with white spirit. The paint bubble was removed, sanded down and treated with Fertan. The patch I’d treated yesterday got a coat of primer.

They were doing interesting things, so I came to check on them. Big mistake! She’d said six hours, I’d only had two and was being bundled up into the boat. This was only so we could walk to the shop for a loaf of bread and pick up a parcel from the post office, she was allowed to go straight back out on our return.

6 locks, 1.15 miles, 4 in a convoy, 1 absent helmsman, 1 photo op not to be missed, 1 boat that should have been missed, 1 memory better than another, 4.5 hours not 6! 2nd rust patch treated, 1 screw knackered, 1 solution needed (might have to nudge it along), 1 big blob of tacky black tack, 1 loaf bread, 4 films.

https://goo.gl/maps/X62MCTnjyny

Claverdon Top Lock 33 to Rowington Middle Lock 29

The water point below Lowsonford Top Lock is popular but seems to cause misunderstanding whenever we’ve been here. Coming up hill you approach it and the lock past a line of permanent moorings. There are two taps just before the bridge at the bottom end of the lock, but if you don’t know this then you might think that there is a queue and hold back. The position of the bridge means that if you approach from above you have to walk down through the bridge to see if anyone is approaching from below, well that’s if you bother to do such things! But are the boats waiting for the lock or just filling with water?

Today we arrived with the washing machine going and pulled in to the two free taps to fill up, dispose of rubbish etc. We were soon followed by another boat wanting to do the same who pulled up in front of us. A few boats came past, one came down the lock and saw us at the water point and decided to leave the gates open thinking we were waiting to come up. However another boat was approaching from behind and thinking there was a queue had pulled in some distance back, a crew member walked up to the lock, saw it was in their favour and walked back to relay the information. So this ex-blue boat started to approach the lock, slowly past the permanent moorings, all as it should be.

Mick then noticed a lot of water coming from the lock, the water was boiling (our new technical term from the C&RT chaps yesterday) but the bottom gate was open! So he walked up to the lock to see a Diamond Resorts boat with it’s bow up against the top gate and a chap with windlass in hand, having just opened up the top paddles.He was stood staring at the open bottom gate. Obviously nothing was computing in this chaps head, so instead of saying anything Mick just leant against the gate and closed it, helping to conserve the levels in the pound above. The lady on the ex-blue boat was now approaching and wondered why the gate was closing in front of her, Mick explained, she wasn’t happy.

When the Diamond Resorts boat came down the gate was closed behind them, good practice, but there was a boat waiting to come up! The chap still had no clue as to what he’d been doing wrong and neither did the lady at the helm. We wonder how long the chap would have stood there before he realised why the lock wasn’t filling? Anyway they were out of the way now and normal operation of the lock could resume. The ex-blue boat made it’s way up another came down, by which time both boats on the water point were filled, some negotiation was had as to who would go first. I stood up at the lock awaiting our turn, helping other boats up and down and passing on information about the lock cottage.

Lengthman’s Cottage is owned by the Landmark Trust dating from 1812 and can be booked to stay in. It was built by the engineers who built the bridges on the Stratford Canal, they used the same techniques that they knew so well hence the barrel roof. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Landmark Trust in 2015, Antony Gormley was commissioned to produce five sculptures, one was positioned here by the lock for a year. Sadly we missed seeing it as we last come through before it was erected and it has now long since gone. I tried looking for where it might have stood, but there were no obviously new stones or holes.

Having helped four boats through and being asked if I was a volunteer I elected to climb aboard Oleanna and leave the next crew to work themselves through. We didn’t feel we’d travelled far enough for the day so resisted the mooring rings in the next pound and hoped for a space a little bit further on. At the next lock there are large signs guiding you to a Farm Shop, it’s a bit further than suggested and up quite a steep hill, but is worth the effort. They have a lot of meat and the lady we’d met a couple of days ago who’d been hoping for a leg of lamb at Wootton Wawen would have been better off here.

The spot we’d hoped for was taken so we came through one more lock and found a length or armco that would do us for the remainder of the day. The whirligig came out and so did some sandpaper and Fertan. There has been a rust patch on our grab rail for a while so today the loose paint was scraped away, the area sanded back and a coat of Fertan added to work it’s magic overnight.

Oleanna has also got very filthy and a layer of stickiness has appeared from somewhere, so half the roof and one cabin side had a good wash down. It does feel better when she looks how she should, even Mick had started making comments on how filthy she was, so she must have been really bad.

Late afternoon we began to list. Mick picked up a windlass and wandered down to the lock behind. A boat had been trying to come up, but the level had stopped increasing, the bottom gate was leaking just as much as the top paddles were letting in. So only one thing for it, empty the lock, open the gate and try again hoping that whatever was stopping the bottom gate from sealing properly had moved, it worked. However the boat following them had difficulty too. Around 8pm we saw a chap with a blue t-shirt zoom past on a bike, in his hand a long pole with a biscuit tin on the end, presumably he’d come to clear the gate.

This is a good outside, they came out to play with me and there were plenty of friends to find too. I’m enjoying this Stratford Canal, just a shame there’s no yoyo flies though.

4 locks, 1.18 miles, 1 full water tank, 1 empty pooh bucket, 1 deceptive queue, 1 total numpty, 0 statue, 0 joint, 1 rust patch sorted, 0.5 clean Oleanna, 1 bag coal off the roof, 1 anchor ready to go away, 1 chicken jointed, 2 good outsides, 3 friends, 1 boat with all it’s doors closed, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp.

https://goo.gl/maps/vhUvTU76of92

Bearly West Winding Hole to Wootton Wawen

A good morning, several more trees climbed whilst they had their morning dingding. There was no sign of the ginger woofer until I went in for a drink, what a funny noise they make. I couldn’t see it from the table no matter how upright I sat, so only one thing for it a bit of a cat nap.

On Tilly’s return we pushed off only wanting to reach Wootton Wawen today so not that far. Around a couple of bends and the long straight to Edstone Aqueduct and Bearley Lock came into view. As you approach the aqueduct it doesn’t look very long, but as you get onto it it seems to stretch out ahead. At 28ft high and 475ft long it isn’t a patch on Chirk or The Pontywhatsit, yet it is still an aqueduct. I will never like them.

We soared over the road with traffic passing under us and then over the railway line, Mick hoped for a train but none obliged. The towpath on the aqueducts on the Stratford sit alongside the trough of water, the walkway being lower than normal.

In the distance we could see a boat coming down the lock, plain sailing all the way and up our only lock for the day.

At Hill Farm Marina, all pristine and new, there were quite a few boats moored. On the far side we spotted the Finesse Crick show boat NB Caress of Steel and then on the near side NB Chuffed both all tucked up awaiting their next journey out. We carried on passing two geese and a white duck family happily swimming along.

At Wooton Wawen we were off new water. Our last ever hire boat came from here, we’d sold our share in NB Winding Down and were waiting to be boat owners and desperately needed a fix after I’d opened two Christmas shows in Hull. I had rung the Anglo Welsh Office and managed to get us an extra night for free on a boat with a stove, we also didn’t have to pay for the diesel or a bag of coal that someone had to go and buy for us. It was the only boat going out between December and March.

A second Aqueduct brings you over the A3400 and to the Wootton Wawen hire base. When we dropped off the hire boat they had us leave it on the aqueduct, blocking the navigation, but then we’d hardly seen any boats moving, the canal southwards had winter stoppages. Today we were relieved that the way ahead was free and indeed there was enough space to breast up against one of the boats for us to fill with diesel. 80.8p a litre and we hadn’t filled up since Hanbury about three weeks ago, needs must. Once full we pulled over onto the 24hr moorings and positioned ourselves part in the shade but leaving the solar panel in the bright sunshine, the day had turned quite hot.

We were soon joined by another couple of boats, one being NB Escapology whom we’ve seen several times of late. Everyone sheltered inside their boats whilst Tilly made the most of a second outside. Actually it was the second and a bit outside. They had done that thing of letting me out and then moving the outside with me in it. However I did witness them doing it so didn’t jump onto the next boat to come along! No ginger woofers here just Crows who wanted to tell the world where I was, no good for finding friends.

Tilly manages to remember to come home to go to the toilet, but rarely does she remember to have a drink on hot days. So as the afternoon cooled off and she came home for a pee (I know, what’s wrong with outside?!) we locked her indoors so we could have an explore and she could have a drink. We walked down past the Farm Shop, we’ll have a look tomorrow, and carried on towards the village. The busy A3400 zooms over an ornate bridge that crosses the River Alne in front of Wooton Hall, a smart house surrounded by static caravans. The gates are rather fancy along with the gate house.

Just past these is the entrance to St Peters Church, or the Saxon Sanctuary. This is a strange looking church from the outside, even stranger on the inside! It feels as if four churches of differing dates have been grafted together. The base of the tower dates back to the 900s, Saxon, and is one of the oldest structures in the Midlands. The top of the tower 15th Century as is the choir screen.

As you walk in you quickly notice that there seem to be a lot of alters. The nave and the raised choir face a Saxon arch at the base of the tower, behind here is the first alter. Followed by another arch which leads you through to seats and a second alter, behind which is a large window that seems to prefer being on a slight diagonal to everything else. Then off to the side is the Lady Chapel with it’s barn roof. Here there is an exhibit giving the history of the the church and village right up to August 1997 when lightening struck the church at midday the day that Princess Diana died.

We called into the village store for some milk where I was astounded at it’s Tradis like feel, it goes on and on and there is so much stock it might be worth checking the sell by dates on things before you buy anything. Having said that there was a constant stream of punters and they are guaranteed to have your favourite curry paste.

1 lock, 2.36 miles ish, 2 aqueducts, 2.3 outsides, 7 hours, 1 ginger woofer, 1 shouty crow, 118 litres, 1 boat going out, 1 hot day, 2 familiar boats, 1 new marina, 1 very old church, 3 more stuck on it, 2 pints milk, 1 window ever so attractive to flies.

https://goo.gl/maps/LCSTKFDdGGm

The Red Lion, Stratford to Bearly West Winding Hole

The wine cellar had a good sweep out and all that was left in there was one box of Tilly’s food. This soon changed when our order arrived! The driver was really excited to see that he was delivering to a boat, he spends quite a bit of time drinking at The Cape Of Good Hope in Warwick watching the boats. Once everything was stowed away, things repacked for the freezer we were ready for the off late morning. Quite a few boats had come up from the basin but then one came down from the locks. Best to take advantage of the lower locks being in our favour and not have a look around the craft market before we left. This proved to be a good thing, as all the locks were in our favour.

After being on the river for so long our watery world has shrunk somewhat, narrow locks and very narrow bridge holes for us to squeeze through. The Stratford Canal has many locks, 55 to get up to the Birmingham level and today we planned on ticking quite a few off. The bottom gates at this end of the canal are all single, so big and heavy, we’ve had several people warn us about them, nobody mentioned that none of them want to stay closed!

We worked up the first two locks, a group of gongoozlers following us. Up ahead I could see the open bottom gate of Maidenhead Lock 53, this was open for a reason, it is a B**t**d. When the canal became disused a new road bridge was built over the bottom of the lock. Not enough room was left for the lock beam, so a right angled one was added. Obviously the boat coming downhill hadn’t manage to shut it after them, or maybe hadn’t even bothered. Normally these cranked beams are made out of wood and you can usually just manage to get behind them to push off from a wall to get them going. This one however is made from a steel framework, getting it going wasn’t too much of a problem, it was getting it past the point of no return that was! I was determined that this lock would not beat me and was about to alter my tactics when one of the gongoozlers decided to join in. I think he thought his help would make it really easy, it certainly meant it got closed, but it still took time.

We hoped to fill with diesel at the Excellence Afloat base and as we approached another boat coming towards us looked like they had a similar idea, although at the last moment they seemed to change their mind. The base was closed and when they’d come through Wootton Wawen the pump there was broken. Hopefully it will be mended by the time we get there!

After Bishopton Lock we pulled in at the water point and checked out the rubbish bins. Now back in C&RT land we could dispose of all our rubbish responsibly, we’ve so missed recycling, our stern lockers had bags of glass and boxes of cardboard. The equivalent weight we’d gained this morning in shopping was possibly disposed of in the bins. We had a quick pit stop before starting the next batch of locks.

At the second of locks two volunteers were opening and closing the bottom gate, another chap appeared to be trying to clear something from behind the gate using a large box with holes on a very long pole. They waved us up and halted what they were doing, one chap saying I should go ahead and empty the lock above, oh and the top gate would be open. The gate was open and wanted to stay that way no matter how many times I tried to close it. The lock didn’t look anywhere near as full as it had been earlier in the day, the water mark a good 18 inches higher than the level, this meant the pound above was also down. I emptied out what water there was and brought Oleanna up watching bubbles rise from the bottom of the pound above, not a good sign.

Mick and Oleanna made slow progress towards the next batch of five locks whilst I walked ahead. The bottom lock was in our favour and I opened the gate and waited for them to crawl along the bottom of the pound towards me. In came the bow, about ten foot in and she slowed to a halt. Mick reversed her, then tried again with a bit more umph, another few feet. The bywash alongside had nothing flowing over it, the one into the pound above suggested someone was coming down the flight as it was more than overflowing. We tried flushing water into the lock to see if this would lift her enough to get over the cill, but no.

Now with a centre line up top for me to pull on, Mick brought Oleanna in gently (the more speed you have the lower the stern goes), we managed a few more feet before she was grounded again. With Mick pulling and no-one stood on the stern we got a few more inches in, but the stern was still way out of the lock. By now the boat coming down was only one lock away, so we reversed out and tied to a bollard, hoping that a lock full of water would make all the difference.

The boat coming down was a hire boat who worried that they wouldn’t get out of the lock, but we reassured them that it would be fine, they were bringing water with them and were likely to be far lighter than us. The gate paddle was whipped up and they started to descend. Within a minute Oleanna was struggling to stay at the side, bow right over and on such a list. I whipped the paddle down and Mick ran down to rescue her. This is the second time Oleanna has had to cling on with just the centre line, we are astounded and grateful at how strong the soft shackle is that joins them to the roof.

With the hire boat down and Tilly reassured at the bathroom window, Mick put Oleanna into gear only to find she now had something around her prop! Engine off, down the weed hatch, well what a surprise a pipe fender!!!! Just how many of these rubber fenders line the bottom of canals at lock flights because people want to protect their paintwork! On an afternoon like this you are guaranteed to pick one up on your prop.

I took a centre line and Mick brought Oleanna back towards the lock slowly. She slowed, but with me pulling she made it over the cill. Maybe one locks worth of water had made the difference, maybe it had washed away some silt, what ever the reason it meant we could carry on up the flight. Going into the next lock and the bywash here was a torrent, another boat was heading down. A Lockie walked up past us and asked if we’d had some trouble, it was only going to get worse as they’d had to drain a pound lower down that would now need refilling. He walked up ahead to stop any further traffic from coming down, but we were allowed to continue upwards.

They said we’d be okay in the longer pound before the last three locks of the flight, but knowing how low the pound we’d got stuck in was I wanted us to be in a far longer stretch of water before we stopped for the night. At the top of the five locks two C&RT chaps were mending a ground paddle and a small queue  of boats was forming to go down. By the time we had cleared the next three locks I could just see that the front boat was starting to make it’s way down the flight, so hopefully no one was stuck for the night.

Time to see if there was any damage inside. I was expecting open drawers, but the list to starboard had brought open a drawer that has never opened before on the port side. Any bottles that were on the booze shelf, mainly whiskey were all across the floor, luckily intact. Our bottle of Rapeseed oil had been stopped from plummeting to it’s death by the bread board. I was very glad as that would have been a very sticky mess to have cleared up, but it would have saved me the job of oiling the oak floor.

Now much later than planned we kept our eyes peeled for a good spot for a barbecue. The first visitor mooring we came across was narrow and most of the bank was fighting to stay upright, so we carried on. A wider stretch with armco, trees, sideways trees and friendly cover. With a little bit of thistle chopping we’d have a very good mooring for all of us. We pulled in, showered and lit the barbecue.

I wasted little time and was straight up the first tree, proper outside at last! With my new outside claimed and marked out I could plunge in and out of the friendly cover and keep an eye on what they were doing. I stayed out for ages, only to be picked up when some noisy ginger woofer started to shout. I was going to give it what for but instead was taken inside, I was a bit peckish anyway.

16 locks, 4.3 miles, 6 boxes of wine, 1 cellar full, 1 freezer full, 0 diesel,  1 bottom very nearly at the top, 2 confused tracking programmes, 1 lock entered 8 times but only once successfully, 1 incredibly strong soft shackle, 0 rubbish left except the stuff forgotten under the sink! 2 locks mended, 1 orderly queue, 1 mooring on our own, 1 exceedingly happy cat, 4th Sunday barbeque in a row, 1 fox, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp of approval.

https://goo.gl/maps/Dj8jejRrfqp

Stratford

Walking around Stratford Upon Avon you could quite easily think that it only exists because of one man, Mr Shakespeare.

Originally an Anglo-Saxon village where the river could be crossed. It was granted a charter to hold a weekly market in 1196.

As a result the village expanded into a town and became a centre for trade and commerce. With the emergence of the canals, Stratford became a gateway from the Severn and Avon up into Birmingham.

In April 1564, John (a glove maker) and Mary (daughter of an affluent farmer) had a son whom they named William and Stratford’s future was sealed. William became an actor, poet and playwright.

By 1592 Will’s plays were being performed in London by a troop of actors called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later to be known as The King’s Men. Will married, had children wrote many plays and sonnets, by the time he reached the age of 49 he retired and returned to Stratford where he died three years later.

In 1769 actor David Garrick staged a major Shakespeare Jubilee which took place over three days in Stratford and this possibly kick started Stratford as a tourist destination. The councils and planners have managed to keep many of the old properties associated with Will. His birth place, his school, his house where he died, his daughters home, his wife’s family home, his fathers family farm, his mothers family home (although this turned out to actually being 30yrds further down the road!).

During our visit we have done very little, if anything to do with Will. Yes we’ve been to the theatre, but not to actually see any of his plays and we’ve resisted buying any of the tat that is everywhere. However, if it wasn’t for that chap who wrote some plays all those years ago (the most performed British playwright) much of what we have done and seen wouldn’t exist, certainly the 2.5/3 million tourists wouldn’t flock here each year.  I wonder what Stratford would be like if he’d never been born, or had just followed in his fathers footsteps as a glove maker. Will Scarborough in centuries to come have fridge magnets and clotted cream fudge with pictures of Alan Ayckbourn (the most performed living British playwright), and in Hull will you be able to buy a John Godber (the second most performed living British playwright) bow tie and Coal not Dole badges?