BRAUNSTON TO BANBURY

 

Old Working Boats

Well Swan Lane to Banbury actually. Its a trip of 50miles and 25 locks. Including the Coventry, the North Oxford and the South Oxford canals.

We didn’t set off from Swan Lane as early in the week as the Captain would have liked, but there were jobs to do and shopping to get, so we eventually left on the Thursday morning.

We were followed later in the day by Keith and Andrew on steamboat Hasty, they were off to the Braunston Historic Boat Rally.

https://braunstonmarina.co.uk/historic-boat-rally-2022/?category=sold

We moored up in the MONW for the night, the canal was very busy with people heading to the rally, or just out for a cruise.

After a late start we didn’t go far, and moored just before the junction at Braunston. Before long we were passed by Hasty and had a quick chat with Keith, and his crew as they passed by.

Steamboat Hasty

We knew it would be fun and games at the junction and we managed to get there whilst the parade was going on. The boats in the parade use the junction to turn round and return to the rally.

We were instructed to wait by one of the stewards, whilst a couple of the old working boats turned and then she waved us through, and on to the South Oxford canal (we had joined the North Oxford at Hawkesbury Junction stop lock).

Now we were truly on our way, well as far as Napton, where next day Col and Mags were coming to visit us.

At Napton is a very good canal side pub called the Folly, and we have visited on a few occasion. We popped in for a couple on the Saturday, but much to the Captains disappointment they had no darks on.

Col and Mags met us in the Folly the next day, well this was the plan, but the pub was shut, but praise be the Potting Shed was open and serving beer. The Potting Shed was built by the landlord of The Folly during lockdown and the restrictions that followed, and is an amazing place. Really quirky and full of knick knacks. Col was most impressed, and almost speechless, which is totally not him.

The Potting Shed

http://follyatnapton.co.uk/

Luckily we hadn’t planned to eat at the Folly, I had organised food on the boat, as I knew their hours were subject to change due to staffing problems.

We had a great time with our friends, and hope to see them later in the year.

Next day and the 9 locks of the Napton flight. These raise the boat 49ft in just under 2 miles, so good exercise for me. The locks were busy with boats going in both directions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napton_on_the_Hill

We stopped at Fenny Compton for the night, and of course had to try the pub, The Wharf, it was ok but no darks on for the Captain once again, it does appear the further south we come the lighter the ale becomes.

https://www.facebook.com/TheWharfInnFennyCompton/

9 locks next day and this took down and through Cropredy, but we didn’t moor there and continued on to moored in the MONW for a peaceful night.

The South Oxford canal is a very rural canal, and in many places the towpath is very narrow and overgrown. This impacts on moorings, as the vegetation has been allowed to run riot, meaning it is impossible to see were the bankside begins, it is also quite shallow. We always find somewhere to moor, but at times they took some finding.

The canal was built in 1790 and is 78miles in length (both north and south), it was built to transport coal from the Coventry pits to Oxford and London. It continued to be used for transport until the 1960’s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Canal

It is 7 years since we last cruised this part of the system, so the changes in Banbury came as a very nice surprise. The town has embraced the canal, and visiting narrowboats, and there is excellent mooring right in the town centre were a new entertainment venue ‘The Light’ has recently opened, giving the area a continental feel. There are moorings on both sides, and new charging points for electric boats have been installed on the offside. The offside houses the Castle Quays Shopping centre. There is also a Lidl about 3 minutes walk away a definite plus for boaters.

https://banbury.thelight.co.uk/

We were lucky and found excellent moorings right outside The Light, and decided to stay for a few nights.

Of course we had to try the local hostelries. A micropub called The Apothecary caught our eye, so that was the first port of call. A quirky place with a very friendly owner, and an even more friendly dog. A bit to pricey for our taste, at around £10 for 2, 2 thirds not even pints but great beer.

https://www.theapothecarytap.com/

We tried the White Horse next, much more to our taste and pocket. They had a very interesting tapas menu on that night.

http://www.whitehorsebanbury.com/

We walked back through the shopping centre and stopped to peruse Lock 29, which as well as being a real ale bar, it also has a selection of street food vendors, with a large open area to sit and enjoy your beer and food.

https://www.lock29.co.uk/

Next day we explored more of Banbury. We visited the museum, which has a display about the Oxford canal. The main exhibition is the history of the town from the English civil war (1642- 1651) to the present day. Well worth visiting.

https://www.banburymuseum.org/

After a very weak pint of Hooky mild in Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn we ventured again to the White Horse. Change of menu, now 2 meals for £15 including fish and chips. The Captain was definitely interested and checked the price of the same in Wetherspoons (their app is very handy for checking things out). Good thing he did, they were completely sold out of fish, in fact they were sold out of a lot of things.

We didn’t eat at the White Horse as they didn’t start serving food until 6pm, and it was only 4.30pm and I was starving.

So we ended up at Lock 29, and it was amazing, I tried the Greek food, it was delicious and good value for money, whilst the Captain had a burger, also very nice.

Yummy

We decided to stay put on Saturday as the weather forecast wasn’t great, and had a surprise visit from little Chris our boat painter, his wife Lucy and William their toddler son. We chatted for a while and caught up.

Unfortunately our final night in Banbury was marred by some very noisy teenagers who congregated outside The Light (after it was closed), and continued shouting and banging things until around 2am.

I reported this to The Light, and also followed up with an email to Castle Quays outlining what had happened, and expressing a hope they would nip this in the bud before many more youngsters decided to join their friends to cause a nuisance, and maybe some vandalism to the venue or moored boats. As the Captain said, it only takes one to be egged on by their peers to jump on a boat, or start throwing things.

On to Oxford in the next instalment

RED KITES AND WOODPECKERS.

A Green Woodpecker

We have now entered proper Red Kite country and we are seeing these magnificent birds on a regular basis, close up and personnel as they soar above the boat. We have seen 2 Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and one, a first for us, a Green Woodpecker and a few kingfishers. I caught sight of a couple of Dippers, a Tree Creeper and a common Tern as well.

We left Banbury and the configuration of the locks changed, still narrow locks, but with only one gate at the bottom end. This made the gates quiet heavy to open and close, but I managed most without help. I had company at King’s Sutton lock, when a friendly local cat came to be stroked and then stayed to watch and offer moral support.

We moored for the night outside The Pig Place, it came highly recommended but we didn’t give it a try as we fancied a quiet night in, and the Captain wanted to watch the British Grand Prix.

https://thepigplace.co.uk/

Also in the skies above us we have seen Chinook helicopters, or as the Captain calls them wocca wocca’s due to the sound their twin rotor blades make. We are quiet close to Brize Norton airbase here so we have had other military aeroplanes overhead too.

We got to Lower Hayford on Tuesday after 5 quite deep locks, and called in at The Bell. We are still struggling to find dark ales for the Captain, so he had to make do with a Guinness.

Next day we stopped at Lower Hayford wharf for diesel, but the Captain balked at paying the price they were asking. So we went and queued for water instead. NB Cherry Tree was filling up, they said it was a slow tap so it took a while, but as always on the water there is no rushing. Its Captain and crew were American and heading to Oxford, a place they had not visited before.

In one of the locks I spotted a pair of pretty grey Wagtails, whose nest was in the wall of the lock. They were taking food to their chicks.

Grey Wagtail

The Captain had marked some offside moorings in our Nicholson book, but couldn’t remember a lot about them. There were 3 boats moored as we cruised slowly by, so we decided to keep going. Then a shout from the bank ‘hey you 2 haven’t seen you for a while’ I racked my brains trying to recall this friendly boater and came up with the name Phil, as we were expecting to see Phil Brook Little on this stretch of the canal. The guy laughed and said no, Rick. It all kind of fell into place then, we had met Rick at the Cape of Good Hope on a rainy afternoon spent in the pub. Bubbles our ginger tom had joined us in the pub, until he spotted Rick’s dog then he turned tail and fled. The barman told me he would have to be on a lead if we wanted to bring him in again. Happy memories and quite a few years ago. We had a chat, and will probably see him and his boat NB Juniper again on the Thames or K&A.

We never did meet up with Phil.

I also discovered a great new recipe for making roti’s

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roti_31237

Thursday was another day for unexpected reunions, and busy. The Captain planned to stay at Thrupp, then going on to Wolvercote next day where we could catch the bus into Oxford. There were 3 locks, and at one of these I was happily chatting to the. guy off the boat behind us. As he helped with the lock his wife came along and recognised me and the Captain. It was Ken and Annie on NB Ceilidh who we had met going into Warwick in 2017. We got along famously and had done some serious foraging with them before a pint in the pub. They have sold their boat due to family commitments, but were getting their yearly boating fix on their daughters boat. They were heading back to base on the K&A.

We couldn’t get in at Thrupp, so pushed onto Wolvercote. As I said in the last blog, the South Oxford canal is terrible for mooring, as in most places the vegetation is so overgrown, and the canal shallow, you simply can’t get to the side to moor.

We were not able to moor at Wolvercote either, as a long length of the bank is given over to Agenda 21 permanent moorings, and I mean a long long way. Each time we thought we had come to the end of them, round the bend it would start again. There were signs for visitors moorings, but as with a lot of the canal they were overgrown and inaccessible.

http://narrowboater.blogspot.com/2011/09/agenda-21.html

So on we went, the Captain getting increasingly grumpy, things improved when we got to Jerico and found the moorings we had used 7yrs ago, still there and very accessible and free. Yippee.

So we pulled in and stayed for a couple of nights. We went to try a couple of the local pubs, The Old Bookbinders Ale House first, a lovely pub with an interesting menu, but no darks, so just the one.

https://craftybelle.uk/oldbookbinders/

Then on to the Harcourt Arms, no darks on the bar, but I did spot bottles of Fullers London Porter and Black Cab in the chiller, so the Captain was a happy bunny. I wasn’t when I went to pay £11.20 for a porter and a pint of Birra Moretti. Deep intake of breath and a gulp of beer to steady my nerves.

Next day and our trip into Oxford, £3 return on the bus not too bad, but I was having a bad day with my knee so I wasn’t real feeling it.

The buildings in Oxford are lovely and we did take a steady walk round, we went to the indoor market, full of interesting and quirky shops, but the best find was the food market at Gloucester Green. There was Sri Lankan, Mexican, Greek, Nepalese, Chinese,, but the one doing the best trade was South Korean, she had organised like a buffet were you could buy small portions at a reasonable price and mix and match things. It smelt wonderful too.

https://www.oxford.gov.uk/info/20231/markets/109/gloucester_green_market

We were eating out but first a pint. We walked out of the first 2 pubs, no darks on of course, but the Swan and Castle had Rudgate Ruby Mild on so that’s were we headed, it was a Wetherspoons so we knew we could eat there to.

To end a lovely day the Captain treated me to a bottle of Whitely and Neill rhubarb and ginger gin. He’s a wonderful fella.

Next day and it was time to leave the canal and join the mighty river Thames, but first a pump out and fuel at College Cruisers. The price of their fuel was a lot more reasonable so the Captain was happy.

https://www.collegecruisers.com/

Through Isis Lock and we were on the Thames, that’s for next time folks.

HOME AND HOLIDAYS

 

On the Oxford canal we headed for Rugby and Tesco for some much needed shopping. The canal was still like the M1 with boats of every description. At one point we were in a convoy of 8 or 9 boats all heading for Hillmorton locks.

Or so it seemed, but when we got there, expecting a queue and a long wait there was not another boat in sight. Very strange.

Hillmorton locks comprise of 6 single locks in 3 pairs side by side. If any one of the locks is out of action it can cause major hold ups, but today everything was working fine, well nearly everything, a couple paddles were out of action.

http://www.hillmortonlocks.co.uk/

As we exited the first lock a hire boat turned up and followed us down. On the last set of locks lockees were there to help out. I jumped off as they bought a hire boat coming up into the lock, the girls had jumped off with their windlasses and were being given a lesson in what to do by a helpful lockee. So I just stood back and watched.

We were soon on our way and got to Rugby, managing to moor close to the bridge that leads to Tesco.

Sunday and the weather didn’t look to promising, but we decided to risk it and travel the 12 miles to Hawksbury Junction. We made it in a respectable 4 ½ hours and moored up before the little stop lock. Off course we had to go to the pub, The Greyhound, and as usual they had Theakstons mild on for the Captain, so he was a happy bunny, the food in here is excellent, but we gave it a miss and returned to the boat for tea after a couple of pints.

https://www.thegreyhoundlongford.co.uk/

Sunday, and a happy return to Swan Lane wharf, Keith was tinkering with Snowdrop his 1930 Rolls Royce, so we had a chat and caught up with the gossip. Everything is tickety boo which is great. I had been waiting with some trepidation for my results from the hospital, and I am pleased to report they came back negative so nothing to worry about.

After a pump out we cruised down to the basin for a couple of nights, and of course had to visit the Hops D’amour and say hi to Vyk and Greg. I had thought about eating out, but decided against it and returned to the boat for tea. In the basin we were joined by 4 other boats and a CRT classroom boat.

I am pleased to report that the 5 ½ miles from Hawksbury to the basin is very tidy and a pleasure to cruise

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/places-to-visit/coventry-canal-basin

https://www.facebook.com/hopsdamourcoventry

We returned to Swan Lane mid week after a very enjoyable time in the basin, including watching a rather scrawny fox stalk a family of geese trying to get some sleep. The parents were having none of it and were extremely noisy in the process, until a kind passer-by chased the fox away and we were all able to get some sleep.

Only a few last minutes bits to get and we were ready for our holiday to Zadar in Croatia. We left ourselves plenty of time at Birmingham airport having heard the horror stories of the queues to get through security, but we sailed through and managed to find a table in the Wetherspoons, a couple of pints and we were off.

That’s all for now folks pictures to follow.

WONDERFUL ZADAR

The Sea Organ

The bridge that connects the old and new towns 

A busmans's holiday

The View from the Forum

The sea and the mountains

We had a great time in Zadar and hopefully the pictures share a little of its beauty with you.

TUNNELS

 

The 5 ½ miles to Market Harborough were uneventful, there are only 2 swing bridges for me to do. At the first I helped a single hander on NB Buckeroo through, and was repaid at the second one, as a boat coming the other way had already opened it and we cruised through with ease.

There are some strange mooring signs on this part of the canal and they look new. On one stretch it told us it was 7 days, but there was no way to moor your boat. The towpath was stoned right up to the edge of the canal so cant use pins, there was no arnco for nappy pins or chains, and no rings or bollards either. Very strange.

We managed to nab the last moorings just outside the basin and had a chat with the guy off Buckeroo, and caught up again with Koi Carp Diem and Nelwyn. Nelwyn was the boat which had broken down (trouble with the oil sump) and they had managed to get it fixed with the help of Debdale Marina. They couldn’t praise the marina highly enough.

https://www.debdalewharf.co.uk/

We only stopped for one night, and after an excellent curry and great catch up with Dave and Sandra, we headed back to Foxton locks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxton_Locks

I love Foxton locks, they were the first locks I ever did, I love to help out as we wait our turn. This day was no different. We had a bit of a wait as the lockees were bringing 6 boats down, before letting the 8 waiting up, and we were about 5^th in line.

As the last boat came down I went to see if I could help, and the first boat up was Nelwyn with her single handed crew, I took him up the first 5 locks to the passing pound where a helpful gongoozler offered to help him the rest of the way. So I returned to the bottom lock and helped out were I could.

After Nelwyn came a boat with no name, then Koi Carp Diem, Gosling, Acen, Elizabeth Rose, then us followed by Still Waters. With everyone helping out it didn’t take long at all. There was lots of questions and chatting on the locks which made it a very enjoyable day. We treated ourselves to an ice cream from the cafe at the top of the locks before heading to the MONW for the night.

https://www.facebook.com/TopLockCoffeeStop/

The reason for this blog being called tunnels, is because on this leg of our journey there were a few to do. The Captain hates tunnels, especially 2 way working ones. You always seem to meet another boat at just the wrong moment, where there is a kink or the ceiling is low and it narrows passage. He is rather precious of our new paint work and covers, and who can blame him.

The first tunnel was Husband Bosworth, at 1166yrds not to bad, and as the saying goes you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We didn’t meet anyone so a successful passage.

As we were approaching the Jubilee weekend the canals were getting noticeably busier with hire and private boats. We passed each other with a cheery wave and a smile.

In the sky gliders from a local club were taking flight, being towed by a light aircraft in to the blue yonder, before being released and left to the mercies of the wind and weather.

https://www.theglidingcentre.co.uk/

There is another reason for the increase in boat traffic on this route, the Jubilee weekend was also the Crick boat show weekend, this is the largest show dedicated to canals, narrowboats and every thing that goes with them.

https://www.crickboatshow.com/

Although the moorings at Crick were suspended for the show, we got permission to moor for an hour to do some essential shopping at the Co-op there. Shopping opportunities on this route are few and far between.

The next tunnel, Crick tunnel at 1528yrds, slightly longer than the last but again straight. But our luck ran out and we met 3 boats coming the other way. The tunnels are only just wide enough for 2 boats to pass, its very dark, so it is almost impossible to judge distance until the 2 boats are really close. Some boats will stop and wait for you to pass, other will plough on through with fingers crossed.

The 7 locks at Watford are the same as Foxton, one way working and you have to book in with the lockee and wait your turn. When we turned up there was only a hire boat in front of us but 6 boats were coming up, so we had a bit of a wait, so we pitched in and helped. Eventually it was our turn and 2 had turned into 3. It took no time at all to get down, but in that time 6 boats had turned up at the bottom all heading for Crick show.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watford_Locks

We moored at Norton Junction for the night and went for tea at the New Inn, one of our favourite pubs on the system. At the pub we met up with the guy off Buckeroo, and a newbie boater off Elsie Ann. This lead to an impromptu boaters get together sat by the lock. But we never found out their names.

https://www.newinnbuckbywharf.co.uk/

At Norton Junction we turned off the Leicester arm of the GU and on to the mainline Grand Union heading for Braunston

Braunston tunnel is 2042yrds long and has a number of kinks in it. It was the one the Captain was dreading, and all his fears came true as we met boat after boat coming the other way. 6 in total. Of course we had to meet them at the worst points, and we had more than a few scrapes and bumps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braunston_Tunnel

Next we had to tackle the 6 Braunston locks, these are double locks but we had know one to buddy up with, we met boats coming up which helped. Then I spotted a hire boat on the next lock landing, they seemed to be waiting for us. Unfortunately this was not the case, and when I approached them they told me they were mooring up, they seemed a little put out when I told them they couldn’t moor there as it was a lock landing, and needed by boats using the lock. However I pointed out they could simply pull back and use pins to moor, which they did.

At Braunston after calling in at Midland Chandlers we turned onto the Oxford canal heading for home in Coventry

The birdlife has been plentiful, I enjoyed watching the Pied Wagtails hovering just above the water, we had a robin sit with us outside Bridge 61, kestrels, red kite and buzzards have soared above us. |Reed Bunting and Chaffinches have been easy to spot along with gold finches, blue tits and long tailed tits.

Reed Bunting

And bats have swooped around the boat at dusk.