A pump failure has closed the Crofton Locks and we are now stuck at Wootton Rivers.
I love this canal, but we have more than had our fair share of hold ups.
But now I must backtrack a few days.
We left Bath on Sunday and the Captain wanted to moor near one of the aqueducts we had crossed on our journey to Bath. He wanted to have a better look at the architecture and fabulous views.
At the Dundass aqueduct we could not find decent moorings, in fact we couldn’t get into the side at all. So on we went. Luckily at Avoncliffe there were a couple of decent visitor moorings free so we decided to stay the night. We had entertainment when a widebeam turned up in the evening and tried to moor, it was better than an old ‘Carry On’ film but they managed eventually. They headed off to the pub, The Crossed Guns, only to find that it closed at 8pm on a Sunday. I did feel sorry for them.
Next day and we took a walk to see the aqueduct up close and personnel, and on the way met Adrian and Val off NB Jack and Janner once again. They are heading to Bristol for a wedding but had time to kill so were just pootling along, we had a great chat and hope to see them again.
After admiring the views from the aqueduct I scrumped a few more apples to go with the blackberries we had picked. I had already made a pie, and these were for a crumble I was making. Yummy.
Our next port of call was back at Bradford on Avon and we moored before the lock as the town centre is more accessible from here. A large black widebeam with a beautiful kingerfisher painted on the side passed us. This is Lynne Gull’s boat and I knew her from facebook. I gave her a shout from the side hatch and she waved back. Ships passing in the night basically.
The walk into Bradford on Avon from these moorings takes you through a lovely park by the river, and the old tithe barn which has been restored by a local group.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford-on-Avon_Tithe_Barn
The town itself is very pretty, with beautiful old buildings but very narrow roads and pavements.
We were just heading for the pub, The Swan, when I spotted the Catholic church was open, always worth a look round. Although not as ornate as most it had an interesting barrel roof, and a more interesting history. Its it time it had been the Town Hall, a police station, a cinema and a bank before being acquired by the church in 1955.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Thomas_More_Roman_Catholic_Church,_Bradford-on-Avon
We then discovered there were 2 more interesting churches nearby so went to take a look.
St Laurence, a Saxon church dating from 1120, although an early church was though tot have stood here prior to 700AD
And Holy Trinity built around 1150
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Bradford-on-Avon
We tried a couple of pubs, the Swan was first, not overly impressed, but we did like the Three Horseshoes, a very quirky pub with clientele to match.
3 locks and 4 swing bridges next day. We stopped at Hilperton Boatyard for diesel and was happy to see the price coming down, from £1.49 to £1.21 per litre. We also got a new back boiler as ours has been leaking for the last few years. The Captain will fit this at some point before the weather turns.
https://store.ukboatyard.uk/about_us-chandlery-boatyard-hilperton-trowbridge
The Captain took me out for tea. The Barge at Seend Cleeve is a lovely canal side pub with friendly staff and great food, we had the Henry burgers, very tasty indeed.
https://www.bargeinnseend.co.uk/
Next day and we planned to get to the bottom of the Carn Hill flight of 16 locks. This meant 12 locks and 2 swing bridges to do. It looked like we would have company as we waited for a hire boat to join us in the lock, but they were exceedingly slow, and then after only 2 locks decided to moor up, very frustrating. So we went on alone and made good time reaching the bottom of the locks at teatime. As we moored a group of French students approached and explained to improve their English could they ask us some questions. The Captain was very patient with them and explained about living and travelling by boat, showing them on the map were we had been and were we were going. A very enjoyable meeting.
As luck would have it, just as we were about to start the locks next day NB Moby Dick turned up with a large and willing crew on board. There were also 2 lockees going ahead and setting the locks for us, so the whole flight of 22 locks only took us 3hrs and 10mins. Very good going and we only met 3 other boats coming down. The lockees complimented us on having 2 excellent and experienced steerers onboard making the job even easier.
We moored at Devizes for the night and headed for a couple of pints, first one in The Pelican, before heading for the Vaults, were they had an excellent chocolate stout on for the Captain which was well deserved after a busy day.
We took a steady cruise next day and I only had 2 swing bridges to do. We passed NB Olive and I shouted hello to Diane Taylor, we are friends on facebook and her and her crew have a YouTube page called Taylors Aboard which the Captain watches now and again
https://www.youtube.com/c/taylorsaboard
After a night on good moorings we set off for Pewsey, we didn’t stop here on the way to Bath so thought we would give it a try, but it was not to be, the moorings were full and of a couple of boats had left proper git gaps so we couldn’t get in. If they had moored with more consideration there would have been plenty of room.
So we decided to make for Wotton Rivers and go up the first lock of the Crofton flight, these close at 3.30pm and we made it just in time. A boat coming down the lock helped us lock up, and then we returned the favour and locked him down. Then the guy from CRT locked the paddles and stopped the leaks by using ash. He did tell us that the pumps which pump water into the system had failed, but hopefully it wouldn’t be a problem, but it was, and so we are stuck once again.
Good blog again Guys you have had some nice places to visit hope your new trips are as good.
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