August 2026 - Atherstone locks, a ceremonious handover and maybe unsavoury things!

Cherrytree Farm Bridge No 33 (Coventry Canal) – Friday 31^st 2026
 
We have set off at 10am every day, but today it was 10.30am to give the boats at the top of the Atherstone flight chance to get down to where we were, and it worked.  One in and one out all the way up the 5 locks.  When we got to the top, 15 boats had gone down and 10 up.  This was about midday – it had only been 10 and 10 all day the day before.  This photo is Over the Moon coming into the first lock of the day.

 
We used the services at the top of the locks and then continued south.  We went passed where the Wilson & Stafford Works (Brittania Works) had been.  The Grade II listed building had been pulled down a couple of weeks ago.  After standing vacant since 1999, the derelict building had severely deteriorated, creating structural safety hazards along Coleshill Road and the Coventry Canal.  It is now going to be flats for the over 55s. 

Atherstone was once the world capital of the felt hat-making industry.  Wilson & Stafford was one uc manufacturer from 1871until its closure in 1999, it was the last felt hat maker operating in the town—an industry Atherstone was historically famous for.  Why Atherstone? Well felt making relies heavily on washing, planking, and shrinking animal fibres (wool or rabbit fur). Atherstone’s abundant local supply of soft water made it an ideal hub for felt production starting in the 17th century.
 
We only went on for a couple of miles before pulling over at Cherry Tree Farm Bridge where we had stopped on the way up last week – well exactly a week ago and in exactly the same spot.  We sat out but it did get a bit chilly once the sun went behind the trees.
 
I looked out of the side hatch about 8pm and saw lovely scenes both in front and behind the boat – photo opportunities 😊

5 miles
6 locks

Hawkesbury Junction (Coventry Canal) – Saturday 1^st August 2026
 
Today’s post is really about a series of abandoned canals that were built at the end of the 18^th century in the grounds of Arbury Hall.  I have found it fascinating researching it and imagining having the money and the land to build my own canals!! 
 
Just before Marston Junction was the entrance to a series of canals built by Sir Roger Newdigate (5th Baronet, 1719–1806) of Arbury Hall who was one of the most prolific private canal pioneers of the early Industrial Revolution. Built between 1764 and 1795, this 5½ - 6 mile navigable cut allowed boat traffic—primarily carrying coal, clay, and stone from the estate's brickworks and collieries—to transfer directly onto the main Coventry Canal.
 
Unlike purely industrial canals, Sir Roger integrated the waterways into the Gothic landscaping of Arbury Hall, using them for pleasure boating between ornamental pools and because the network was entirely self-contained on private land, Sir Roger engineered it to custom, smaller-than-standard dimensions.
 
I found this on a Canal World forum.  It was drawn by Chris Lowe.  Chris, I hope you don’t mind me using your drawing. 
 

There were seven canals, the Coventry Communication Canal was a short link running from the Coventry Canal inland toward the estate.  The Arbury Lower Level was connected to the Communication Canal via a staircase of locks.  The Coventry Wood Canal & Arbury High Level climbed through woodland and fed into the Hall Pool directly in front of Arbury Hall.  The Coton Lawn Canal and the Seeswood Canals went out to Seeswood Pool (the main reservoir supplying water to the system).  Finally, there was the  which was a separate branch to the north connecting the Griff colliery to the Coventry Canal (which remained in use for coal haulage long after the rest closed, operating until 1961). 
 
There were 13 locks which lifted the canal system 93 feet 6 inches from its junction with the Coventry Canal up to Seeswood Pool.  The locks were small, built to fit specialized estate boats measuring roughly 40 feet long by 6 feet wide.  The system featured a unique "Triple Lock" near Hall Pool—a Y-shaped lock with two sets of top gates allowing boats to enter from two separate branches of the waterway.
 
Following Sir Roger’s death in 1806 at the age of 88, the estate waterways slowly fell out of use. By 1819, the upper levels were no longer navigable as railway and tramway transport took over.  Today, while the canals are dry or overgrown in places, substantial traces—including old lock structures, bridge parapets, dry cuts, and feeder pools—remain hidden within the private grounds of the Arbury Estate.

Arbury Hall is still owned by the Newdigate family and has been for the last 440 years. The current owner is James Edward FitzRoy Newdegate, 4th Viscount Daventry.  If you have read the above and have spotted a possible spelling error, then I am right and you are wrong!  Originally the surname of the family was Newdigate but when Sir Roger died in 1806 without direct children, the baronetcy ended. To keep Arbury Hall within the wider family, the estate passed to his cousin, Charles Parker.  Under the terms of the inheritance, Parker was required to assume the ancestral family surname. He adopted both spellings to unite the different family branches, styling himself Charles Parker Newdigate Newdegate.  Over subsequent generations—notably through figures like Sir Francis Newdigate-Newdegate—the family simplified the primary surname back to its older, original root spelling: Newdegate.
 
I thought that Gifford-Hull was complicated enough but fancy having a surname of Newdigate-Newdegate!
 
Our goal for the day was Hawkesbury Junction and we were lucky enough to get the last two spots on the 7 day moorings.

 
We went to The Greyhound for dinner and sat outside with the nice view of the junction and the bridge.  It was a good meal.

 
On our way back to the boat, we passed a boat called Talifoo which is a Cutweb boat. (I am the secretary of the Cutweb Internet Cruising Club.)  We got talking and Pauline asked how she could get a club burgee, I said, that as this was outr last trip out that they could have ours.  I sadly took it down and ceremoniously passed it over.  I was pleased that it has gone to another Cutweb member.

9 miles

Hungerfield Bridge No 35 (Coventry Canal/Oxford Canal) – Sunday 2^nd August 2026
 
We had a late start, it should have been 11am but it was, in fact 10.30am  Both men had itchy feet!

This pretty cottage faces right onto Hawkesbury Junction, what a spot to live.

We filled up with water then emptied what needed to be emptied!
 
Through Hawkesbury Stop Lock and then back onto the Oxford Canal, our home canal.

 
In February 2024 there was a massive landslip which completely buried the canal in the Easenhall Cutting, which is just outside the village of Brinklow.  Following a prolonged period of intense, heavy winter rainfall, the ground became completely saturated. A massive 60 foot section of the steep cutting collapsed without warning.  It dumped an estimated 4,000 tonnes of soil, clay, boulders, and massive mature trees directly into the canal bed. It completely blocked the canal from bank to bank and entirely wiped out the towpath. The canal was instantly shut down, cutting off a vital artery of the network right before the spring cruising season.  Clearing it was a massive, complex engineering headache that took over three months and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. Because the cutting was so steep and the surrounding ground was a soup of wet mud, contractors couldn't simply drive diggers to the edge.  C&RT had to construct a temporary 300 yard long stone haul road across saturated fields just to get heavy excavators safely down to the water.  Working in brutal mud, crews had to meticulously chainsaw the fallen mature trees out of the water before scooping out the thousands of tonnes of displaced earth.  To ensure the rest of the cutting wouldn't follow suit, engineers had to "re-grade" the face of the hill, cutting it back to a safer, shallower angle to stabilize the remaining land.  Thanks to the heavy-duty stabilization work, the canal was successfully dredged and safely reopened to boat traffic during the weekend in May 2024 and was completely reopened in the July.

There are three mooring places at Old Oaks, Brinklow, but it was bow to stern boats all along.  However, we managed to get on the end of the moorings right beside a small car park.  About 5pm, Tracey asked if we could move as she just didn’t feel right about the spot.  I have to admit I wasn’t sure about the car park and, and as Tracey said, the possibility of people visiting at night to do unsavoury things!  I did wonder why there were just the two spaces left on a rammed mooring stretch!

Our second, lovely mooring place.

8 miles

1 lock