A nice peaceful night – we were very close to Spaghetti Junction, but
the traffic noise wasn’t a problem.
 |
| Stop lock at the end of the Grand Union |
We have now covered the whole of the Grand Union Canal from Brentford
(coming in from the Thames) to today where it joins the Birmingham and Fazeley
– obviously not on this trip but I wonder how many people can say that they
have done it as it means traversing the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal.
Sadly, for me anyway, we didn’t go right under Spaghetti Junction – to
do this we would have had to go on the Thame Valley Canal and we couldn’t see a
winding hole shown on the map so would have had to go a long way to turn
around.
Here are a few photos I took as we came out from under the motorways.
The canal goes under this factory which once manufactured electric arc
furnaces.
The only locks we had to do today were the 3 Minworth locks. At the top lock are a couple of lock cottages
with a plaque saying Lock and Bridge Competition 2001 – National Champion. I
don’t think today’s floral display will win anything!
The second Minworth lock is in a lovely location – though there are
factories and workshops behind those trees.
I found this at the bottom lock.
Any ideas?
There are a number of pubs along this part of the canal all with their
own moorings however, after last night’s pizza, a pub dinner is definitely out
of the question! We were heading for
Curdworth and but stopped a little short overlooking a HUGE field of wheat
which was being harvested along with a baler baling the straw.
We had a changeable afternoon – raining one minute and bright and sunny
the next.
Here are a few facts about Spaghetti Junction. Despite being officially named the Gravelly
Hill Interchange, it was the apt moniker of Spaghetti Junction that stuck and
passed into everyday language. The
nickname is even mentioned in the Oxford Dictionary, but road maps still use it
original name. Designed to join up the
M1, M5 and M6 motorways, the interchange was the centrepiece of the Midland
Links project to bring traffic into the middle of Birmingham. The six-lane carriageway and link roads had
to go through several built-up areas, so planners followed the line of the
river and canal network on elevated sections to minimise demolition and
disruption. This is why the interchange
takes on its 'spaghetti' appearance. It
took four years to build the intersection and, after starting construction in
1968, the first motorists ventured on to its carriageways on May 24th
1972. In its first year, an average of
40,000 vehicles passed over it every day. But that number is now much
higher. More than 200,000 motorists use
it every day. At the time of its
construction, the project cost £10million to complete. It consists of 559
columns - some of them 80 feet high - and 13,000 tonnes of steel reinforcement. Split across five levels, Spaghetti Junction
is one of the biggest and recognisable interchanges in Europe and even appears
in the Guinness Book of World Records as 'the most complex' on Britain's road
networks. A total of 18 routes are
served by the junction and the whole interchange covers a 30-acre area. About £7million is spent by the Highways
Agency every year to keep Spaghetti Junction in a safe condition. Strangely enough I have “borrowed” this photo
from the internet – and there was you thinking I had taken a flight so I could
take this photo!!
The interchange's colloquial name "Spaghetti Junction" was
coined in 1965 by journalists from the Birmingham Evening Mail. On 1st June
1965, reporter Roy Smith described plans for the then unbuilt junction as a
"cross between a plate of spaghetti and an unsuccessful attempt at a
Staffordshire knot" and sub-editor Alan Eaglesfield headlined the article
"Spaghetti Junction".
5.47 miles
3 locks
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