What’s the rush?

If you’ve clicked on the location tab, you’ll see that we’ve suddenly moved north, why the dash? What’s the rush?

Back in September we were on the Kennet and Avon Canal and wondering where to spend the winter season with the boat. The original plan was to stay in the south and explore the smaller canals around London and along the Grand Union. Trouble is, this is the time of year that the Canal River Trust (CRT) make repairs to locks and stretches of canals that are either broken or leaking. So they announce their winter stoppages (closures of the navigation) and if you want to spend the winter months somewhere in particular, you need to ensure you’ve got past them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, in October, Heather had a pre-op appointment at her orthopaedic hospital for a knee replacement operation. If you know Heather, then you’ll be aware that she has had issues with her knees since she was in her late teens. She’s had several operations and replacement knees have been on the cards for many years. Now it is going to become a reality – except our home is currently at the wrong end of the country. We need to be in the north west before this knee operation happens, preferably back on the Macclesfield Canal, somewhere  near to Congleton in Cheshire.

We checked the CRT website for notices of stoppages and, to our horror, discovered that the Stoke-on-Trent two locks were being closed in early November and the end of the Coventry Canal had a breach and was going to be shut from the 31st October. We were about 330 lock/miles away from where we needed to be and the clock was already ticking. Time to move.

At this end of the summer, unexpected closures happen with greater frequency, especially when it’s been this dry. Water shortages have caused CRT to put daily time restrictions on passage through some locks in order to conserve water. Autumn storms cause trees to fall and the wear and tear of a busy summer means that lock paddles have been broken, making progress a lot slower.

The bonus of our dash north is that we are chasing the autumn colours. The North Oxford and the Coventry Canals have been quite stunning. We passed through Hawkesbury Junction where the water of these two canals meet at  Sutton Stop Lock. This lock is just over a foot deep but it’s one of my favourites both for it’s history and it’s character. It was built in 1802 and was managed by generations of the Sutton family (hence the name). Its purpose was to prevent the constant loss of water from the North Oxford Canal into the Coventry Canal. The coal barges that travelled this stretch were deep drafted and heavily laden,  so water was a precious commodity, ensuring they could move at a good pace and not drag on the bottom of the cut. Fradley Junction is at the end of the Coventry Canal and as usual there’s a popular pub where the gongoozlers can sit and watch boaters make the sharp turn onto the Trent and Mersey Canal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we approached Halloween, some of the boat decorations became even more extreme and colourful.

We are moored on Tixall Wide, (near to Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire) spending a few days recovering from the mad dash. It’s an old favourite that we visited earlier this year when Storm Eunice hit! Thankfully, it’s all been a lot calmer, although still a bit wet on the tow path, but the views are still pretty amazing.