August 2025 - Hot stuff!

Great Linford Manor Park (Grand Union Canal) - Monday 11th August

Another day off!  I could get quite used to this!  It was going to be a hot day so we did very little except chase the shade again.

We decided to walk into Great Linford and have some lunch at the Nag’s Head, sadly they are no longer doing lunch on a Monday.  I do wish their website reflected this.  It was lovely and cool in the pub so we had a drink and a packet of crisps!  The 15th Century thatched pub has original beams, low ceilings and two real fireplaces.  The first reference to a pub called The Nags Head in Great Linford is dated 1792.

There is a lovely church in the park, St. Andrew’s Church. The 12th century tower is the oldest part of the existing church, and every century since it has seen alterations and additions.  Considerable refurbishment works took place in the early 18th century including rebuilding of the chancel, south aisle and porch, the existing pulpit also dates from 1707.  A charter of 1151-54 mentions a chapel at Great Linford and excavations beneath the present nave suggest a late Saxon or very early Norman church with a simple nave and small chancel was once there.  The church has a full set of six bells which were installed in 1756.  

Beside the boat was a plaque set in the ground.  We all pondered over it until I did some research.  On the other side of the canal is a Water Cascade which, I guess, was part of the estate before the canal was built.  During the renovations the pond was drained and dredged and the old cascade was dismantled, transforming it from a stagnant pool into a magnificent Water Garden, retaining its secret garden feel. Now, a new path leads around the pond, which can be reached from the canal towpath.  The plaque must mean that the tunnel which carries the water from the ponds on one side of the canal to the cascade is 4.760 metres below where we were standing.

Rio was a bit of a pest as he seemed to think that the whole park was HIS territory and barked at anyone who dared to walk in it.  In the end we had to tie him up which was a shame for him.  

We actually managed to sit out until gone 9pm, the first time it had been warm enough to sit out to that time.

Manor Fields Bridge No 97 (Grand Union Canal) - Tuesday 12th August

Our mooring at Great Linford was only a 48 hour one and our time was up.  We moved down

to the services and I spied a Tesco Express.  We didn’t need food but a wine shop was a good

idea being so close to the boat.

We passed the “entrance” of the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway.  This proposed new

waterway will run from the Grand Union Canal at Campbell Park, cross the M1 between

junctions 13 and 14, run near Brogborough Hill, through Marston Vale and connect with the

river Great Ouse at Kempston, a suburb of Bedford.  The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway

Trust was established in 1995.

Oh my goodness did it get hot!  Both Tracey and I suffered, it was too hot on deck and too hot

down below.  Rio has decided that he likes to be on deck when we are traveling, so I put his

cool jacket on and had to replenish it about every hour.

By the time we got to Fenny Stratford lock it seemed to be even hotter and being in the lock

was pretty unbearable, thank goodness it only has a drop of 11 inches which meant we didn’t

have to be in the depths with no breeze.

Fenny Stratford lock was built temporarily to aid construction of the canal but deemed too

costly to remove after completion.  The bridge over the lock is to provide access for the lock

cottage.  I found this little bit of information - the early 1800's were the heyday of the

stagecoach and there have been recorded forty alehouses and coaching houses in Fenny

Stratford between 1750 and 1810. Among these were the Bull and the Swan, the oldest of the

town's public houses still in existence.  40 pubs!!!

We didn’t go much further before pulling over in a shady spot where we all passed out!!  When

I looked as to where we were for blog purposes I discovered that the bridge we were close to

has two names, Manor Fields Bridge and Hammonds Bridge.  I guess the Manor Fields name

comes from the Manor Fields cricket ground and, as far as I can see, the Hammonds Bridges

is after Thomas Hammond who was tenant of Manor farm for most of the nineteenth century. 

It’s amazing what you can find on the internet!

We have passed the River Ouzel a number of times and I discovered that it is a tributary of

the River Great Ouse, which is where we should be now :-(  The river, also known as the River

Lovat, rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows 20 miles north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell.

It is usually called the River Ouzel, except near Newport Pagnell where both names are used.

7 miles

1 lock

Above Soulbury Locks (Grand Union Canal) - Wednesday 13th August

We were worried that it was going to be too hot to sleep last night, but, in fact, when I had

finished reading, about midnight, there was a bit of a chill in the cabin so I put the duvet over

us and I slept really well.

We didn’t have that far to go today, just to the top of Soulbury Locks as Steve and Tracey’s

son, Richard, was going to join us again.  

Just before Stoke Hammond lock there is a boat moored with a lovely garden on it’s back

deck.

We went through Stoke Hammond lock, a lock on its own in the middle of nowhere as the

village of Stoke Hammond is about a mile away.  The village was first recorded in the

Domesday Book of 1086 as Stoche: a common place name in England denoting an Anglo-

Saxon church or place of worship. The suffix Hammond was added later in manorial, referring

to the Hamon family who owned the estate at the time of the Domesday survey. Stoke Manor

was owned by Hamon Brito, son of Mainfelin Brito, in the 12th century.  The village is one of

the 53 "thankful villages" which lost no men in World War I.  I just love doing research on

places, I mean who would have known that there was a man named Mainfelin Brito back in

the 12th Century!!

There were two lockies at each of the three Soulbury locks, so we whizzed through and

moored up for the day.

The Soulbury locks were known to working boatmen as the “Stoke Hammond Three” and

became Grade II listed in 1984.  I found this titbit whilst researching the locks.  Not the most

eerie of settings you might think, but boatmen of old insisted the locks were haunted by the

ghost of a woman and her baby, and claimed that on still nights, you could hear the squeak of

the pram wheels before she and her child disappeared into the murky waters of the canal!

Richard arrived with goodies!  We had all had Amazon parcels delivered to his house!!  We

had broken the remote control for our TV, so he brought us a new one, along with a cap for

Richard and a map of the Black Forest - OK so I haven’t quite really finished my Germany

planning yet!

4 miles

4 locks