August 2026 - 4½ hours to get through Hillmorton Locks, an emotional final entrance into the marina and and lot of sorting out to do

Site of Clifton Loop Line Railway Bridge (Oxford Canal) – Monday 3^rd August 2026
 
It was a hot one today.  We didn’t have far to go before our planned mooring place.
 
Our last tunnel, Newbold, and finally we discovered that Rio prefers to be on the roof going through a tunnel than being on the deck or down below – bit late now.  

We passed through Rugby and saw a rather strange sight 🤣  🤣

We were able to moor where we wanted to which was by the golf course where it was nice and cool.  We were amongst other boats all wanting to go up Hillmorton Locks on Tuesday and there were others passing us all afternoon, it was rather worrying as to what we were going to encounter at Hillmorton the next day.

 C&RT had only put Hillmorton on restricted timing but everyone was expecting an email, at any time, saying that they would be closing them, so were desperately trying to get up before it happened.  I feel sorry for people who are hiring boats who don’t really know what is going on or those who have them booked as their holidays probably won’t happen.

What is going to happen to the canals?  The weather forecasters are saying that these dry, hot summers are here to stay and because the 2000 mile network relies primarily on feed from 80+ reservoirs, local streams, and rainfall to refill pounds, low rainfall combined with high evaporation rates directly impacts the ability to keep canals navigable.  However, England saw four consecutive months of above-average rainfall from November 2025 through February 2026. And by the end of February 2026, overall reservoir storage across England had recovered to 94% capacity.  Can we trust that will happen again in the coming winter? 
 
5 miles

Dunchurch Pools Marina (Oxford Canal) – Tuesday 4^th August 2026
 
We left our mooring at 9.15am after a few boats had got passed us.  We were about 15^th in the queue at 9.45am! The locks were being shut at 2pm – were we going to get through?
 
The three Hillmorton locks are paired (or duplicated) narrow locks, which means that boats can get through quicker, however one of the bottom pair is broken which meant that access through the flight was slow.

In the 1770s, Hillmorton had only three single locks. However, as commercial coal traffic from the Coventry coalfields boomed in the 1830s, and after the canal route was straightened, Hillmorton became a massive bottleneck.  To relieve severe queues, the canal engineers duplicated the entire flight in 1840. The upgrade vastly sped up transit times (allowing chambers to fill in under two minutes) and enabled over 20,000 working boats a year to pass through during the height of the Industrial Revolution. Today, Hillmorton remains one of the busiest lock flights on the UK canal network. Two minutes – it is about 10 to 15 minutes these days!

By 1pm we were 4^th in the queue – another hour before they put the chains on.  Will we make it??  Steve and Tracey were 2^nd in the queue – somebody pulled out in front of us as we went along ☹  We were finally first in the queue at 1.25pm.   Not only is there just one lock working but only one bottom paddle operating on the working lock!  The middle set of paired locks were both operational but the one we were in only had one top paddle working. Could it get any worse?  Yes!! One of top pair had been closed to save water so another queue had formed to go up.  Finally, we were through the top lock at 2.20pm and on our way to Dunchurch Pools.

 
OtM had pulled over before Dunchurch as they had had enough – I don’t blame them.  We pulled along side to say our goodbyes, it wasn’t the easiest of things.

Even the clouds were grey in sadness as we drove in.

 
As we approached the marina so the tears came.  I knew they would so it wasn’t a surprise.  It was quite painful knowing it was the last time that we would be bringing Mary H into the marina.  Richard did a perfect approach to the pontoon which was good considering the wind.
 
We had planned to go to out for dinner in Braunston with Steve and Tracey but it was far too late for them to get there and get a mooring.  As we had nothing out of the freezer for dinner, we took Kiwi to Sainsbury’s and I got some ham and eggs plus a few other nice things, so we had ham egg and chips for dinner!
 
6 miles
3 locks

 

Dunchurch Pools Marina (Oxford Canal) – Wednesday 5^th August 2026
 
We woke up to rain but it soon turned sunny but it wasn’t a hot one.  It was pretty windy though.
 
A day of tidying up Mary H and sorting out what is going home and what can go to the bin.  The bedroom was the first – I even found a Covid test at the back of the dressing table!

We were expecting a visit from Ian Parrott from the New and Used Boat to both give us a price and some advice on how to make the boat look nice for selling.  The sun was shining and by the time Ian arrived and Mary H was looking lovely.  A valuation of £59,950 was made which we were happy with. Richard has a few outside jobs to do before he will be happy to finally put her up for sale.
 
After Ian left then things got messy with cupboards being sorted into what we want, what will go to the charity shop and what we will leave for the new owner. There was stuff everywhere but gradually it went into either a box, a crate, a bin bag or back in the cupboard.

Late in the afternoon I got a message from Tracey to say they were back in their marina. I asked if it was too late to go out for dinner and I got the reply back saying that they could do that and would pick us up. It is just what we both needed.

We continued with our work until it was time to get ready to go out - ah, a problem, all my clothes were in the motorhome which was in the overflow car park and all I had were the tatty things I was wearing. We changed our pickup point and quickly walked to Kiwi where I did a quick change and was just ready when our “taxi” arrived. We went to the Admiral Nelson in Braunston and sat outside beside the lock, lovely location. I had a very nice steak but the presentation left a lot to be desired. Steve and Tracey dropped us back at the motorhome and we said our goodbyes again before taking Kiwi to the boat ready to pack up in the morning.

 
To get to the overflow car park where Kiwi was parked, we walked across a field.  The ground was so hard and was cracking up with some very strange holes appearing too.

 
Dunchurch Pools Marina (Oxford Canal) – Thursday 6^th August 2026
 
An early start as we wanted to be seen to be packing up the motorhome as the marina staff got into work- she shouldn’t have been parked where she was overnight 🙃
 
Richard disappeared into the locker under the bed and brought out all sorts of stuff!  It all went into Kiwi to be sorted out at home.
 
Finally, we were done and went to get a coffee and bacon bap at the marina cafe.  The cafe has been open for some time but it was our first time in there.
 
It was then time to leave Dunchurch Pools. We have been there since it opened in 2017 and have watched it grow and flourish. 
 
Richard will be back to do some minor work on the outside of Mary H and take more things home. BUT it was my final goodbye. Strangely enough I didn’t feel too sad, but I certainly had a strange feeling in my stomach as I walked down the pontoon.
 
I’m writing this as we are driving home in our motorhome having left our narrowboat for the final time. Now I feel sad, very sad, but we are driving into our future and leaving Mary H in our past.