Moving on to the Ashby

First off, thanks Kevin for the comments. What a shame about J & J Cash, I suppose pressure from the Far East was the reason. Here’s a picture from the Transport Museum that I didn’t post the other day, but has some relevance to the story…
It’s part of a 19th century street scene. Odd, they didn’t use an apostrophe…

The old P6 3500 was an excellent car, the 3½ litre aluminium V8 sounded great and went even better! I bought an insurance write-off (I think on a P plate) for the engine, (to go into a Series 2a SWB Land-Rover, but that’s another story!) but the car was too good to break, so was rebuilt. I heard that the P6 was the first British wind-tunnel designed production car, but I’m not sure how accurate that is.

Meg continues to improve, thanks. We’re still taking it easy, I don’t want her recovery to slip back.

Anyhow, moving on. Today we were away about half-past eleven. The day had started bright after a hard frost, but had started to cloud up a bit by then.



Parrott’s Basin is only marked now by a change in the bank reinforcement and a tree fringed depression.
The Parrott family were land-owners and mine operators in the area, so this was probably a loading wharf.


A steady couple of miles brought us past Charity Dock again. I’d looked for the famous mannequins on the way down, those that change costume depending on the season, but missed them. I think they’re in lock-up for some transgression….

Yeah, I wish!

There are several wooden or steel narrowboats lying on the bottom near the dock, probably left over when the collieries closed.

Just under 3 miles from Hawkesbury we turned into the Ashby Canal at Marston Junction. We timed it nicely, NB Margoletta had just come out from the junction bridge.

Onto the Ashby
It’s a sharp turn from the south, we couldn’t make it in one go.

The Ashby Canal was 30 miles long from it’s terminus at Moira to the Coventry Canal Junction. It was originally proposed as a through route from Marston Junction to the Trent and Mersey at Burton on Trent (wouldn’t that have been great!). Although the 30 mile section finally dug was fairly easy, following the contours of the land, the route north from Moira would have involved costly earthworks, aqueducts and locks, so was scrapped.
It’s success brought about it’s demise; coal extracted from the Measham area caused considerable subsidence, affecting the canal and causing about 8 miles to be closed. There is an active programme to restore the lost length, involving a diversion off the original route near Measham.

Now, though, there’s no coal traffic and the canal is quiet and mostly rural.

The mileposts still show the original 30 mile length.

It’s a while since we cruised this canal, nearly 3 years, and the towpath hasn’t improved any in that time…

I thought we were going to get dumped on again at one point…

…but the sky cleared again. It’s been quite warm in the long sunny spells this afternoon.

We’d arranged to catch up with Sue and Vic beyond Bridge 13, and there was a welcoming party ready…

Penny (L) and Meg (the other one)

The other half of the crew of No Problem


We’re staying here tomorrow, we’ve a lunch invitation we’re not going to turn down!


Locks 0, miles 7¼