Good ideas and observatios along the cut.

Passing through Hawkesbury Junction we are now on the Coventry canal and are heading to Stoke Golding on the Ashby canal to collect two parcels. One is the new fuel pump that is coming from Amazon to a click and collect point that happens to be the small village post office. The other is for Jaq and will be arriving at the same post office via poste restante, very convenient.
A second reason for the Ashby trip is I have an appointment with a Chiropractor in Hinckley. After months of suffering Jaq has convinced me to give it a try and after some sleepless nights and pain pill swallowing I have agreed. 

At the top the Navigation pub as a closed wreck in 2012. Now with a side extension it has become a nice home.
In the 1881 census the landlord was a George Fife. He and wife Lucy had 5 children the eldest 13 and the youngest was a 1yr old named Cinderella, and i always thought unusual names was a 20th Century fashion of some 100 years later.

I saw the boater wash the dogs down alongside the boat and liked the idea. It`s housed in a fire extinguisher cupboard from Midland Chandlers.

This curved vacuum pipe reached up to suck all the leaves and debris out of the gutters. No ladders or scaffold needed and it all fits in a tiny van.

Anyone seen a CRT man standing on the towpath with radar gun in hand.

Just as far as Sutton Wharf this trip as the Ashby canal was not part of the plan.

All around us are new borns. Calves and lambs in the fields, ducklings and Moorhen chicks are everywhere. Even the Swans are now parading their cygnets. Plenty of pictures of new borns appear on blogs and we were in Warwick when we saw our first ducklings back in March. I hear-by claim a first in spotting this electricity pylon along the Ashby out with it`s young pylonette. If serious about pylons and their young you must join this club.

 

Now when you were kids hands up all those who were told Cows laid down because they were tired. You were wrongly informed. My Mum said it was a sign of rain and the Cows were laying down to keep their space dry before the rains came.

An old map and dinner for birds and friends

In my last blog Jaq and I were gathering wood in the cutting by Newbold tunnel and this got me thinking of the straightening of the Oxford canal back in the late 1830`s. The original canal twisted and turned across the countryside following the contours of the land. This cut down on locks, tunneling, aquaducts etc that are found in a more direct routed canal.
I found some time back in Rugby library a map entitled `Intended improvements along part of the line of the existing Oxford canal` dated 1828. The photocopy I made is not good enough to reproduce on the blog so I have made up my own from modern mapping.

 

 

As well as the present route, i have marked in black the suggested second straightening. It goes from about halfway along the Newbold cutting, very close to my last wood site, to bridge 42 (actually slightly left of my marking). My Yellow marking shows the original line although there was more. Opposite Lime farm and Brinklow marina`s the original line went out into the fields turning back along the contours.

Not sure why the second route was not used, perhaps the land owners would not sell to the canal company.

 

 

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas break. Jaq and I spent a few days at Barby or to be exact Onley prison moorings. Sounds a bit ominous to those without the benefit of a watery basement but i can assure you the prison lies a decent distance back from the canal with plenty of woodland between the two. For three days we had it all to ourselves, the mooring that is. I guess the prison was pretty crowded. Several boats came by including two hire boats from the Ashby canal company. I managed to have a short chat with one crew and like us and many other boaters they had eaten Christmas lunch on board.

 

Talking of lunch while at Onley we provided regular meals for the local bird life. The bird table was installed by I think Bert on Nb Twinkle so all it needed was food. Jaq made up a tasty meal consisting of fat and rind from Gammon steaks, toasted seedy bread and raisins all mixed with chunky peanut butter. Every batch went in no time. Talking of bird food have you noticed the lack of Hawthorn berries this year. There seems to be Rosehips but a very  distinct absence of the small Hawthorn berries the birds feed on through winter.

 

Every mooring eventually gives us itchy feet and the urge to move increases. The rain stopped and the Sun appeared tempted us to cruise into Braunston. We soon came across friends and fellow bloggers Jacquie and Stein on Nb Like Ducks 2 Water. They accepted a dinner invitation offered when we last met them on the Macclesfield canal back in the summer and a lovely evening was spent with two real nice genuine people.   

 

Floating, 1st stop wood gathering

8.30 am and we are back in the water and boy does it feel good to be free once again. The marina we

have just left is just under the bridge and these boats are the Ashby Boat Co. hire fleet laid up for the winter although we did see one go off on Saturday.

The horses seem to know I am heading somewhere with something in mind

and how right they were. This is some of the harvest from the first of three sites we will be stopping at as we head away from the Ashby canal. This time of year there is no such thing as too much wood and over the next few days it will all be split and covered on the roof.

On the move, a lovely feeling

On Saturday morning we set off from Napton having spent some time with friends Andy/Tina. We all had a lovely meal at the Kings Head just 5mins walk from the marina at bridge 109. The food was absolutely 1st class as was the service. The new landlords will do well as word soon gets around along the canal.

Along the puddle banks it was sad to see this boat sitting on the bottom. Five weeks back before the U.S. trip it was afloat but with signs it had recently been submerged.

 We carried on through Braunston seeking out a quiet spot to spend a couple of days to get back into the life we have missed. Saturday afternoon Jules and Richard came by on their fuel boat Towcester and we took the opportunity to take on 10 bags of Stoveglow and top up the fuel in our main tank and fill our emergency Jerry cans. The coal will last a long time as we burn wood during the daytime needing the coal just to keep the stove in overnight.

 

 Sunday morning the canal was covered in ice with temperatures down to 31F. It was not to long before a boat came along cutting through  and pushing large sheets of ice against our hull which if you were hearing it for the first time would convince you an earthquake was in progress.

 Monday morning and we are thinking of heading towards the  Rugby Tesco. Across the cut the Sheep graze in the heavy mist so tea and coffee consumed it starts raining so still here. Jaq had a Tesco delivery, ordered from Seattle as we waited for our flight, delivered to the marina before we left and forgot a few things. It was her first order so I must as always be patient.  Plan for the near future is to head towards the Ashby where we have a slipway booked for a week to black the boat below the waterline. Following this around mid December we move south on a slow cruise to London.