Revisiting last year's journey - Coventry and Oxford Canal

I recently got feedback that it would be nice to visualise where the places are that I am writing about. So with my amazing freehand drawing skills I have scribbled onto a map so that you can see what I am talking about. I have added a map like this to all posts for reference.

So here is the next leg of the journey. I am going south along the red bit:

Right from the turn onto the Coventry Canal at Fradley Junction I thought I had a problem with either the engine or the gear box as the boat rattled like a tractor and I didn't make much progress. Checked the propeller but there was nothing on it. It took me a while to realise that actually I was dragging the boat along the bottom of the canal all the way. This canal urgently needs some dredging!

The Coventry Canal is the first canal I ever cruised with Willum. He was previously moored in Kings Orchard Marina, which is only a few miles from Fradley Junction. When we first left the marina, we had the manager pilot us out as the turn was too tight for me to do and we ended up nose against the bank opposite. When I passed it this time, the entrance seemed exceptionally wide. How perceptions change. I must have learnt something in the meantime.

Kings Orchard Marina

The Coventry Canal was also the place where I met the slowest boaters of the whole trip. Every day at least for some time I had somebody in front of me who was so slow that I had to stop every now and then as I was catching them up in tickover (which is the slowest speed I am able to go). I would have had some sympathy if they had been hire boaters as these are often inexperienced and stop in panic at every boat that comes toward them. But this wasn't the case here. What's up with this place!?

I passed Fazeley Junction, which is where the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal branches off. I didn't boat on this canal to Birmingham, but way back in June I moored right at the other end of it in the centre of Birmingham on my mooring under the rock club. It's like connecting all the dots in the canal network on this trip.

Fazeley Junction

Signs at Fazeley Junction, mostly overgrown

I also encountered one boater who managed to annoy me three times over two days. First he was moored on one(!) loose line more or less across the canal directly in front of a bridge so that it was difficult to get around him in order to to pass under the bridge. I even considered stopping and checking if a line had come loose. But no, he was happy inside and didn't care that he was all but blocking the canal.

Later in the day when I was moored up on a perfectly wide part of canal he passed me with so little space that his fenders touched my boat without even acknowledging it.

The next day I went through the Atherstone flight of 11 locks. This was my very first lock flight on Willum last year so I have a soft spot for it. As usual these days there was a queue and I ended up having a lovely couple on a boat behind me. They turned up like on cue every time, when I was leaving a lock and closed the gate for me to speed things up. In the middle of the flight however, who pulls out from a mooring and squeezes in between us but this guy again! So I lost my lovely helpers and you bet that this guy didn't lift a finger. In one lock he didn't even show up to do his own bit, after I had left the lock altogether. Fortunately people like this are very rare as this guy somehow really got to me.

But I don't want to sound grumpy. Apart from this I liked the Coventry Canal. It is lovely and winding (have I mentioned that I don't like my canals too straight?) and has some interesting hills. I think they are either slag heaps or old quarries as this used to be an industrial area.

Queue at Atherstone

One boat had these captive birds on deck. I think they are sparrowhawks.

In the middle of the Atherstone flight

I saw Tench at the top lock, the boat I steered a long time ago with the Idle Women tour

A quarry in the distance

Strangely shaped hill

I didn't take the Coventry Canal all the way into Coventry itself but turned off onto the Oxford Canal at Hawkesbury Junction. Hawkesbury Junction was a real challenge for me last year as it involves a 180 degree turn under a bridge going almost directly into a lock. This time it worked much better than last year obviously. I was chuffed to turn in one big swoop (OK one tiny reverse) and without bumping into anything. All the more important as there is always a big audience at the Greyhound pub there.

I moored just after Hawkesbury Junction. In the morning I awoke to this sight:

Horses on the towpath

Two horses, a mum and her foal, had been "moored" on a mooring pin all alone on a wide bit of towpath the night before. The pin had obviously come loose and the horses were now wandering up and down the towpath. A cyclist, a lady with a dog and I tried to catch them, but we just managed to make them run up and down the towpath in a panic so we gave up. A little later I cycled back to the junction and found the horses standing there peacefully grazing with the rope and pin attached trailing conveniently close to a wooden post in the grass. I tied them onto the post and felt very brave. Have I mentioned that I am terrified of horses?

I cycled to the end of the Coventry Canal as I wanted to visit the cathedral there (some pics of the cathedral below). The canal ends right in the city centre in a nice basin with yet another statue of Mr. James Brindley.

Street side of Coventry Canal Basin

Statue of James Brindley in the basin

Coventry Canal Basin

Some more impressions of the Coventry Canal:

White geese

This barge is being reclaimed by nature

Finally I managed to get some blackberries!

Northern Oxford Canal

So after Hawkesbury Junction it was on to the Northern Oxford Canal down to Braunston. It almost felt like the home stretch already. The Oxford Canal used to meander around the contours a lot more when it was first built. New straighter connections were built later, but a lot of the old arms are still visible. Some of them have beautiful wrought iron bridges. These bridges are a very recognisable feature of the Oxford Canal.

Old canal arm bridge near Brinklow

The only locks on this stretch are at Hillmorton. They are three narrow locks but always two of them side by side. It came in handy this time as there was quite a lot of traffic. It was really busy at this time everywhere.

Poetry at Hillmorton

I saw some poetry carved into the beams saying THIS DOOR MAKES DEPTH - CAPTIVE FOR A WHILE. Hum. I studied literature many years ago, but the meaning of this eluded me. But Google revealed later what it is supposed to say:

WORKING WATER
CAPTIVE FOR A WHILE
CLIMBS CAREFULLY DOWN
THIS DOOR MAKES DEPTH

Well this does make slightly more sense. I have no idea where the other two lines actually were.

From Hillmorton it is not far to Braunston, where the Oxford Canal meets the Grand Union. Braunston is one of my favourite places on the network as there is always some canal activity going on and it has such lovely boaty places, shops, pubs and people. Reaching Braunston does feel a bit like home already as now it is only the Grand Union to tackle, which is very familiar territory already.

First glimpses of Braunston church

This time I am approaching the famous bridges at the junction from the other side.

The Horseley Iron Works bridges in Braunston

Evening in Braunston

The strangest thing happened in Braunston. I wrote early on about a guy who really annoyed me when I tried to moor in Braunston as he was blocking two places with his tiny boat and refused to move a bit to make space. I moored in the exact same spot again this time just outside the marina. The next day I couldn't believe my eyes, when the same guy rocked up and moored again right next to me! What are the chances of that (unless he alwayas hangs out in this spot of course, but it is a 48h mooring)? This time he "only" played music into the night, but was otherwise relatively unobtrusive.

In Braunston I picked up Sabine again, my first crew from the beginning of the trip. Poor Sabine only ever gets to do big locks for me, never the lovely easy narrow lock flights.

I'll cover the journey on the Grand Union from Braunston all the way back to London in the next post.

Here are some more impressions from the Oxford Canal: