A short day to Wootton

This canal is a delight, It’s far more pleasant in the summer than in the winter, when we made our previous visit. It’s well worth a visit in it’s own right, although it’s more often treated as a through route on the Avon Ring.

Cruising near Wilmcote.
It’s narrow, shallow at the edges and a marked contrast to what we’ve been doing the last few weeks, but very enjoyable.

I’d arranged for a mail drop at Wootton Wawen Post Office, so we only had a short trip today. It was appreciated by the crew after yesterday’s exertions.

The canal had a difficult birth and precarious existence. Planned to connect Stratford to the main network south of Birmingham, it ran into financial difficulties almost straight away. It finally took almost 20 years to make the route from Kings Norton on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal down to the Avon at Stratford.

The engineer was William Whitmore, and he used cost saving techniques to build the structures, single gates on both ends of lock chambers, split arch iron cantilevered bridges and iron troughs on brick abutments for the aqueducts. He was innovative, offering to build a new design of boat lift on the Somerset Coal Canal free of charge in exchange for a lump sum and a share of the cargo tolls if it worked. The scheme was not approved.

The Stratford On Avon Canal opened around 1812 and was initially fairly successful, the main cargo being coal from the Black Country. But it soon suffered from railway competition, and traffic declined rapidly. It only had an independent life of 40 years before being bought by the Great Western Railway.
The northern section from Kings Norton to Lapworth (the connection to the Grand Union) still carried sparse commercial traffic into the 1950’s, but the southern section had long since fallen into disrepair, badly silted with decrepit locks.

It was nearly abandoned 1958, but public pressure forced the proposal to be rejected, and in 1960 the National Trust took over a lease on the Southern section, with an agreement to restore and maintain the navigation. The restoration was accomplished in 1964, with the help of prison volunteers, army units and local enthusiasts (as on the Upper Avon), and officially reopened by the Queen Mother on July 11th.

In 1988 British Waterways took over responsibility for the waterway, relieving the NT of a burden they didn’t really want anyway.

We only had one lock to pass today, at Bearley. A boat was just leaving as we arrived, so that was easy.

Bearley Lock
At the far end of the long straight in the picture we’d crossed the first of those iron aqueducts, at Edstone.

Crossing Edstone Aqueduct.
A mini Pontcysyllte, it carries the canal over a road, railway and farm track on a 700 foot span, 35 or 40’ up.

We passed under several of the tidy little accommodation bridges today, the two halves of the deck cantilevered out from the butresses, with a gap in the middle to pass the tow rope for horse boats. The design avoids the need to build a larger arch spanning the canal and towpath.

Rebuilt Bridge 57
Plaque on Wootton Wawen Aqueduct, another but shorter iron trough.
We moored just past the aqueduct, opposite the Anglo Welsh hire base. It’s been busy there this afternoon, Friday must be one of the change-over days.
They also have a couple of day boats for hire, one of which nearly came to grief when he saw us coming this morning. The steerer over compensated and sent the boat into the bushes on the offside.

Whoops!
I pulled over onto the towpath side while he sorted himself out. The family were laughing about it, but he was a bit embarrassed.

I took a stroll up into the village to collect our post. The Post Office is located in what might have been a coach house for Wootton Hall

Wootton Hall, the PO is around the side.
The Hall’s grounds are now home to a large static caravan park, the 17C main building now flats and a bar/restaurant.

Alongside the hall is St. Peter’s church,

St. Peter’s
This is the oldest church in Warwickshire, incorporating parts of an 11C structure. There was an even earlier wooden building here, dating back to the 8th Century.

We had a couple of hitch-hikers today…









Locks 1, miles 3

Up out of Stratford

Yesterday was showery, so we stayed in Bancroft Basin. It gave me a chance to have a look around the town, get some shopping and get in a long walk with Meg.

Stratford from Clifford Hill.
The Gower Memorial alongside the basin.Shakespeare is surrounded by four of his characters; Hamlet, Falstaff, Lady Macbeth, and Prince Hal.
Although Prince Hal seems to have committed some sort of crime – he’s behind bars!Yesterday morning we had to help a couple of boats out of the basin, there’s not a lot of room to manoeuvre, and the brisk breeze didn’t make things any easier.
The water level in the basin had dropped a bit overnight as well, leaving NB Nomad Dream aground. Judicious use of organic ballast (people) got her free.

NB Nomad Dream on the bottom.
We were away at 08:30 this morning, surprisingly, considering the number of hire boats here, the first on the move.

Heading towards the very low exit bridge.The Stratford on Avon Canal was built with narrow locks, and they do seem small after the river locks on the Severn and Avon.

Lock 55, the first of the narrow locks.
Lock 53 stands alongside a widened bridge, and has had it’s lower balance beam removed and replaced with a cranked iron framework. I had a lot of trouble moving this one. Without the counterweight of the beam, the gate is heavy and awkward.

Lock 53
Usually on narrow canals the lower end of the locks have a pair of mitred gates. This canal has single or clapper gates at both ends. The locks are around 7’ deep, so the lower gate is big and heavy. Mitre gates split the weight and are a doddle.

There are 5 locks spaced out over the first 1½ miles lifting the canal up from the river, then the bottom of the Wilmcote Flight is reached.

Up out of Stratford.
The Wilmcote Flight lifts the canal another 77’ through 11 more locks.
You’re well out of the town now, and the flight runs through wooded countryside.

On the Wilmcote FlightWe had a fairly easy run, with several boats coming down, and reached the top lock shortly after noon.

We looked for somewhere to moor, rejected the 48 hour section near Wilmcote (too many trees), and pulled in on a short bit of piling a quarter mile further on. It’s going to be quiet tonight after a couple nights in the bright lights of Stratford…

Locks 16, miles 4

Off the river, onto the canal.

I had a long run this morning, then we had water filling and loo emptying to attend to, so it was around 10 before we got away.
I told you it was nice at Luddington…

Moorings

Village Green
Main Street
We had two miles to cruise before arriving at Weir Brake Lock.

Weir Brake Lock
This, along with several others, was built with volunteer labour from the local Borstal. Inmates from Gloucester Jail also helped on some of them.
The last Avon Lock is Stratford Trinity, aka Colin P Witter. It’s built on very unstable ground, and has a steel framework to maintain the integrity of the chamber.

Stratford Trinity LockWe’d met a couple of lads with time and a windlass on their hands, and they helped us through both of these locks, opening gates and winding paddles.

Bob (on the left) and Connor, Seyella’s little helpers.You can see part of the reinforcing frame on the right.

Leaving the lock the church from which it got its name is passed….
Then you enter the broad reach of the river into the parkland alongside the town.

Approaching Stratford.
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is on the left, the earlier part, looking like a power station, at the far end was built in the 30’s. The newer addition at this end is much more aesthetically pleasing.

Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
We pulled on to a mooring on the right, across from Wide Lock, connecting to the Stratford Canal, and were descended upon by voracious tourists.

Mags regaling an avid audience with watery tales and narrowboat derring-do.
Meg and I had a walk up to Bancroft Basin, just above Wide Lock. There’re are pontoon moorings up here, with several spaces, so we took advantage of an empty lock, and went up to moor there.

Moored in Bancroft Basin.
It’s still busy here, but at least folk can’t peer in the windows!

Even though we've had some rain, the planned closure of the Western side of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal went ahead yesterday. Most of the hire fleets seem to have relocated to the other side of Skipton, but some will have been left high and dry.

Locks 3, miles 3½

Lovely moorings…..

Today dawned clear and sunny and Meg and I set off across the fields to Marlcliff, then back along the river. A very pleasant walk.

Bidford over the river
Bramble Cottage in Marlcliff
Not sure how they got Planning Permission for the “monstrous carbuncle” of an extension, though.

We got away before 09:30, under the arches of the 15C bridge. I’m kicking myself for not going up into the village, there’s supposed to be an excellent bakery selling home-made pies. Mmmm, pies.

Bidford Bridge, built by monks from Alcester. I think the arches were designed by a committee that couldn’t decide on the shape and size…
We went through four locks today, all of which have attractive moorings above. They’ll only accommodate maybe three boats though, so you have to get there early!

Moorings above Barton Lock
We’ve timed it really well today, arriving at empty locks, or with boats just leaving.

Welford Lock, with a big weir on the right.
Just above Welford Lock, typical Upper Avon, with “Cousin It” trees (Mags’ name for willows) hanging over the water.
I think we’re in a “stockbroker belt”, there’re some posh houses around here…

Des Res near Welford.

Binton Bridges, just East of Welford, is a hazard to navigation in high water conditions. The river is shallow here, and the navigation arch is off to one side, making lining up, if coming downstream, difficult.

Binton Bridges

We arrived at Luddington Lock just as a couple of boats were coming out, and there were two more waiting to come down, so we didn’t have to do a lot.

There are very pleasant moorings here, just above the lock, and we’ve pulled over for the night.

Moored above Luddington Lock
Mags looks pensive, I’ve just told her how many locks there are between here and Braunston, Meg just wants her ball throwing…
Just three miles and two locks into Stratford Upon Avon tomorrow morning.
Not sure whether we’ll stop or not. It’ll be busy with tourists, and last time I came I thought that it was very commercialised, you wouldn’t have thought that Shakespeare could have slept in so many different beds and eaten in so many different inns in his 52 years.

The Dover Locks Inn was always considered to be the best, safe spot to moor before or after Wigan on the Leigh Branch. Maybe have to rethink...

Locks 4, miles 6

On the Upper Avon.

We had a bit of a disturbed night last night. The rowing club opposite had a “do” on till late, and Meg was a bit unsettled, with traffic and odd noises going on. Me, I slept through it all. Clear conscience, you see.
Town moorings are not normally our thing, but beggars can’t be choosers on the Avon.

We were off at 09:00 this morning, wanting to do a bit before lunchtime, so we could get settled to watch the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Evesham Lock, just after 9 this morning.
There’s a resident Lock Keeper here, where the Lower Avon ends and the Upper Avon begins. If memory serves, you used to have to have a separate licence for each section, as they were run by different trusts.
He’s got a splendid chalet style lock house, sitting over the old millstream.

Leaving Evesham Lock
The Upper Avon is a lot narrower in places than below Evesham. Shallower too. This means that the flow is considerably more evident. Approaching the locks means pushing against a good flow, and that’s in these dry conditions.

On the Upper Avon
The Upper Avon had been derelict for some time before it was finally re-opened in 1974 by HM. Most of the locks have been resited rather than rebuilt, hence they tend to be functional rather than attractive. The new chambers have new names, dedicated to the benefactors who made the restoration possible.

Robert Aikman New Lock, pretty ugly……
But in a beautiful setting.
This used to be Harvington Lock, the long closed Harvington Mill stands alongside.

We were lucky enough to be able to share the first two locks with NB Grand Ecu, an aluminium Sea Otter, recently bought and being moved to it’s new home on the Grand Union. But a small narrowboat managed to insert itself between us before Harvington, so we were left to do two on our own.

Marcliff Lock (now IWA Lock) is another in a beautiful spot, with the weir stream rushing in from the left below the lock. Could be decidedly tricky in wet weather I suspect.

Approaching Marcliff Lock
We had to wait for the two boats in front to go up, and another to come down before it was our turn.

Waiting at Marcliff Lock. I’m telling Meg to get back on board.
Up to this point we’d made good time, so pushed on to Bidford, arriving just before 13:00.

Coming into Bidford.
At this time of day I expected there to be plenty of mooring space on the right, against the Recreation Ground, but this was all full. So we motored across and moored on the Frog and Bulrush mooring just below the old bridge.

I got the aerial set up in time to nearly catch the start of the race, watched a few laps then a gap appeared over on the other side of the water, so we hastily untied and did an S bend to get on the mooring there. It’s seems all the action in Hungary was in the bit I missed. Sod’s Law I guess.

After the race I took Meg for a ball session on the playing fields alongside, then spent a very pleasant hour chatting about classic cars and boats with a couple driving a beautifully restored Standard 8.

Maurice and Glynnis and Standard 8.(apologies if I’ve spelt your names wrong!)

It’s been another warm but overcast day. The sun tried to make an appearance later on the afternoon, but soon gave up the attempt.

The river hasn’t seemed very busy, but moorings fill up rapidly. I like cruising rivers, but this is one of the downsides. Every spot is filled here now, and some boats are breasted up again.
Still, be back on the canals on Tuesday, then I’ll be complaining about the murky water, shallow channel, speeding boaters…..

Locks 4, miles 8