August 2026 - A poorly dog again, a very hot day and the closure of the Atherstone flight

Hopwas School Bridge (Birmingham & Fazeley Canal) – Tuesday 28^th July 2026
 
My day started at 5.30am with Rio waking me up making little mewing like noises, which usually means that he wants to get up on the bed, so I put him up but he carried on making noises.  There was only one thing for it, sandals on and take him out.  Yes, he did need to go out!!!
 
The plan was to go back to Hopwas for lunch at the Tame Otter then move on to somewhere nice and shady to sit out the very high temperatures forecast for Wednesday.

We got to Hopwas and went to the pub for a good lunch.  It wasn’t spectacular but the Tame Otter is one of a large chain of pubs.  On our way back to the boats, we decided that our spot was a nice shady one and the towpath was nice and wide so that we could sit out without taking up the whole of the path and annoying walkers and cyclists.

 
I think we all had a nice afternoon.  I caught up with lots of things while Richard, in fact, did very little but then, why not!  As we had eaten at lunchtime, it was sandwiches for dinner.
 
Earlier in the day we had passed Huddlesford Junction.  This is where the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal meets the original north-eastern limit of the Wyrley and Essington Canal (the stretch now known as the Lichfield Canal. Completed in 1797, the Wyrley and Essington Canal joined the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal here to transport coal from local mines to the wider waterways network. Toll cottages were built on-site to ensure passing commercial boaters paid their dues.  As commercial traffic dwindled, the Wyrley & Essington line was officially abandoned in 1954.  The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust is actively working to reopen the route. Currently, only the first quarter-mile of the Lichfield Canal branch is in water, which serves as a private mooring basin for the Lichfield Cruising Club.
 
5 miles


Site of Bridge No 58 (Birmingham & Fazeley Canal/Coventry Canal) – Wednesday 29^th July 2026

 
Another early morning, but this time Rio was sick.  It was about 4.30am when he started making his little noises.  Richard put him on the bed, but it wasn’t long before he started again, so Richard took him out and Rio was promptly sick.  Both R & R came back to bed.  Half an hour later Rio started again, then he jumped off the bed and was sick in the saloon!  My turn to clear it up.  After that we all went back to sleep.  There must have been something around our mooring spot that Rio had eaten as it was after we moored there the other day that Rio was sick before.
 
We had planned to have a day off as the temperature was forecast to get to about 30°  However, we had toilet issues.  We were on our third and final cassette - apparently it was my fault as I had been trying to drink a lot of water to stop getting cramp at night (it did solve the problem).  Richard was worried we would have problems, so we moved on.  I rang three different places that might offer elsan emptying but they didn’t.  In the end, with the help of the torch Richard decided that we would be OK.  What a relief! 

 
Fazeley Junction looked so much better today as the sun was shining.  When we went through there the other day the sky was grey and it all looked very drab.

 
Up through the two Glascote locks and then we stopped to visit the Co-op local which is situated right beside the canal.  Finally, we found a lovely shady spot and sat out as it was 33° in the boat. 

One of the most famous historical finds in Staffordshire took place right by the canal. In 1943, two boatbuilders working at the boatyard alongside Glascote Locks dug up a heavy, twisted metal ring.  Unaware of what it was, they assumed it was an old iron coffin handle, washed it under a tap, and sent it off to their head office.  Decades later in the late 1960s, it was recognized as the Glascote Torc—an extraordinarily rare, solid gold Iron Age neck ornament dating back to around 50 BC. It is now one of the star exhibits at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

7 miles
2 locks

Atherstone Flight, Above Lock 6 (Coventry Canal) – Thursday 30^th 2026
 
We thought it would be very hot overnight but it wasn’t.  In fact, we haven’t struggled with heat at night since we left the marina, two weeks ago.
 
The plan for today was to use the services at the bottom of the Atherstone flight, go up 6 locks then stop for the night and it all went to plan EXCEPT that it rained!  In the first lock there were a few drops, drizzle arrived in the second lock.  By the third lock the rain was a bit more intense and the raincoats came out at the fourth lock.  As we came out of the sixth lock, the rain had stopped.  I know we need the rain but it could have waited until we had moored up!
 
At 2.31pm C&RT sent out this email. 
 
“Due to continued dry weather and the ongoing pressures on water resources across the network, we have taken the difficult decision to close the Atherstone Lock Flight to navigation from Tuesday 4 August until further notice.” 
 
This has given people four days to do the Atherstone flight which is going to cause some people a lot of problems, as they may not get there in time and, with the Wolverhampton flight also closed, movement from north to south/south to north could be very difficult.

It was my turn to cook, and I thought what I was cooking, Crispy Chicken with Cream Dijon Sauce) would be easy.  Actually, it wasn’t and it was fairly late before we ate.

5 miles

6 locks

3 of these photo was taken by Tracey and I have pinched them!!

August 2026 - An announcement, a well known boat, a poorly Rio and chaos at Fradley Junction

Site of Swing Bridge No 50A (Coventry Canal) – Saturday 25^th July
 
We hadn’t been going long when we passed a boat called Dexter’s Star.  It is a very well known boat, as is their crew, Paul and Anthony who vlog under the name NarrowboatLife Unlocked.  They have over 42,000 subscribers which is pretty amazing.  Dexter's Star is an award-winning 58-foot serial electric hybrid narrowboat built by Elton Moss Boat Company in collaboration with Ortomarine., it won Favourite Boat in Show at the Crick Boat Show 2026.  The name Dexter’s Star honours their late dog Dexter.

 
We had the 11 Atherstone locks to do today, but first we needed to use the services at the top lock.  For once we found recycling bins.  We have been very good with our recycling on this trip, so many times it has had to go in the general waste bin as there is no recycling bin.
 

The nice lockies helped us down the first three locks then we were one our own, but we were only going down the first five before stopping and walking to Tesco.  It was only a short walk but my back was really hurting and I really struggled walking back with shopping bags, even though they weren’t very heavy.  Back at Mary H we put the shopping away and I rested my back for a bit.  We decided that we would moor somewhere on the flight, but the mooring really wasn’t inviting as it was hot and there was no shade.  This meant continuing through all the locks and then cruising on until we found a nice spot.  I lay down to rest my back until we pulled over.

OTM pulled out from inside us and wanted Mary H out of her way!!

Once upon a time I would have loved doing the Atherstone flight, it’s an easy flight and in nice surroundings, but my back started hurting after the third lock and it then became a chore. 
 
It was a very nice mooring until we realised that we were beside the railway, however it really didn’t bother us at all, thank goodness.  We had planned to have a barbecue but it was decided that, with the grass on the towpath being so dry, it was not a very good or ethical thing to do. 
 
Now for the big announcement.  We are putting Mary H on the market in September.  There are a number of reasons but the first is, as we now have the motorhome, we are hardly using Mary H.  This is her first outing since August last year.  Secondly my back really won’t stand up to pulling on ropes and pushing bows out.  Also, Richard’s knees are suffering too.  We had made the decision a few months ago but today proved that it is the right decision to make.  It is sad, but it’s time for pastures new and more explorations.  But, for the time being we are enjoying our cruise especially in the company of Steve, Tracey and Ted on Over the Moon.  We will miss our summer cruises with them but maybe we will be able to take the motorhome to join them somewhere on the system. 

I popped out of the boat quite late on and got this, what I think (!), is a lovely photo.  The colour of the field looks as if someone has touched it up!

 

6 miles
11 locks

Hopwas School Bridge (Coventry Canal/Birmingham & Fazeley Canal) – Sunday 26^th July 2026
 
Our first landmark today was the Samuel Barlow pub at Alvecote.  The name Samuel Barlow carries significant historical importance in British canal history.  Samuel Barlow was born into a boating family in 1846 and became Samuel Barlow set himself up as an owner-boatman carrying coal from local collieries around Tamworth and Warwickshire. He established his primary operating base at Glascote, near Tamworth, supplying coal via the Coventry and Birmingham & Fazeley canals to factories, gasworks, and depots. Following Samuel's death in 1894, his widow and sons continued to run and expand the carrying business.  By the 1950s, under Samuel Edwin Barlow (grandson of the founder), the company adapted into road haulage alongside canal carrying. As commercial canal traffic dwindled in the 1960s, parts of the operation evolved into the Blue Line Canal Carrying Company based at Braunston, famous for its distinctive blue, red, and white livery and decorative ropework.  It finally closed in October 1970.
 
Next was the two Glascote locks.  It was nice and easy as two boats were coming up.  Very strangely the first boat moors in Ventor Farm where OtM moors and the second one comes from our marina.  Weird! 

I’m not doing much steering at present as I had my cataracts operated on four weeks ago and until I can get new glasses, everything in the distance is a bit blurred and double!  (I am reading and can see the laptop screen which is about 2 feet away without any glasses – magic!) However I do the locks and relieve Richard when he needs to relieve himself!!  Today he was making lunch and I had to deal with a very sharp 90° turn followed by a narrow aqueduct.  I managed it very well, though I say it myself!

 
We came to the junction of the Coventry Canal with the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal.  When we first came passed the junction there was a rather dilapidated British Waterways yard.  Now there are some lovely flats.  Having said in previous blogs that the Coventry Canal Company had stop locks at the junctions of the Oxford and Ashby Canals, I was surprised to notice that there wasn’t or never had been a stop locks at the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Junction.  Research shows that the Coventry Canal ran out of money in 1771, so the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Company stepped in to build the 5.5-mile section north from Fazeley Junction to Whittington Brook. Because the Coventry Canal Company never bought this section back, it legally remains part of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal to this day.  So even being tight fisted over stop locks, they still went bust!

We cruised on to Hopwas and pulled over just north of the village. 
 
It was my turn to cook and I did a paella.  I had found a paella pan in the cupboard which I thought would do 4 people but I ended up using the frying pan as well.  Even though I say it myself, it was good!
 
Rio had been off colour all day and then he started being sick and was sick on and off all evening.  When it was bedtime, he slunk off into the bedroom wanting to get up on the bed which is most unusual for him, as he prefers to sleep on an armchair.  Normally he is up on a chair waiting for his bedtime biscuits.  He slept on the bed all night, but he was very good and we didn’t really realise he was there. 
 
I thought that Hopwas was a strange name, so I looked it up.  Recorded as Opewas in the Domesday Book, the name derives from the Old English hop (an enclosure or sheltered valley) and was (a marshy place). Held directly by King William, the survey recorded 13 households, 30 acres of meadow, a watermill, and a royal woodland.  In 1235, King Henry III granted permission to the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral to quarry stone in the forest at Hopwas for the construction and maintenance of the cathedral.  One other little fact – in 1277, due to frequent ambushes on travellers, King Edward I ordered the undergrowth in Hopwas Wood to be cleared to eliminate hideouts used by robbers and outlaws.  We were moored in the woods so I was glad there were no highway men around anymore.

9 miles

2 locks

King’s Orchard Bridge No 85 (Birmingham & Fazeley Canal/Trent & Mersey Canal/Birmingham & Fazeley Canal) – Monday 27^th July 2026

 
Rio seemed to be back to normal this morning thank goodness.
 
We made a decision last night that, as things are only going to get worse on the canals with no significant rainfall in the offing, and the last thing we want is to get stuck away from our home marinas, we had to come up with a new plan.  We decided to go up to Fradley Junction, turn round and head back up the Atherstone flight and finally up the Hillmorton locks when we would be safe.  OtM still had the Calcutt flight to do but, so far, I gather the Grand Union Canal isn’t doing too badly for water.  It is very sad especially with it being our last outing on Mary H, but it is what it is.  We had to cut our trip short last year through lack of water too, but in 2024 we got stuck on the South Oxford due to too much water!  Crazy weather.

When we got to Fradley junction it was total chaos.  A day boat was moored on the water point and had been abandoned, another boat with an angry crew and four boats trying to get through the swing bridge and then trying to turn to go through the locks and having to queue.  Thank goodness by the time we actually got onto the Trent and Mersey Canal things had calmed down and we were able to turn round and head back down the way we had come.  There were two water points so both boats were able to fill up.

Back in the 19^th century, the junction and the locks were busy with boats carrying coal, pottery, timber, and agricultural goods which passed through day and night.  Both canal companies erected cottages, maintenance yards, and red-brick workshops for lock keepers, lengthsmen, and maintenance crews.  Central to the junction is the Swan Inn.  It dates back to around 1770, this iconic pub served boatmen for generations and remains the centrepiece of the wharf.  It is affectionately nicknamed "The Mucky Duck".

 
We wanted somewhere to stop but there were C&RT “No Mooring” signs everywhere where it was possible to moor.  Apparently, this is in force for a week while they put more stones down on the tow path.

 

We finally found somewhere, thank goodness.  There was road noise, but I hoped that maybe the wind would change direction and it would quieten down – it didn’t!  Tracey cooked fajitas for dinner which were scrummy.
 
11 miles

August 2026 - A Marmite boat, farewell to the Ashby Canal and a quick chat with NB Huffler

Geary’s Bridge No 33 (Ashby Canal) – Wednesday 22^nd July
 
We availed ourselves of the Snarestone facilities, winded and set off back down the canal. 
 
Richard had mended the tunnel light, the bulb had gone, so when we went back into the tunnel, I didn’t have to be Linda the Light this time! When the canal was built, to cross under Snarestone village without building a costly flight of locks, engineers excavated the 250 yard tunnel, which was completed in 1804. Both tunnel portals are Grade II listed.  To me they just look like tunnel portals, but apparently, they are grandly built from ashlar and rusticated stone (whatever that is!). Positioned directly above the arch head on both portals are recessed stone niches. These originally held commemorative plaques or inscriptions, though the lettering has eroded or been lost over the past two centuries. 

We lost Richard’s special mug in an incident where a chap came round the corner on the wrong side of the canal.  Richard had to quickly reverse and ended up in a hawthorn bush.  His mug was full of coffee on the taff rail and got knocked onto the deck and broke.  It was a sad time ☹  I had lost my matching one a year ago, so I hope they are now together again in mug heaven.
 
We went passed Shackerstone, or Sacrestone as it was known in the Domesday Book of 1086.  Shackerstone is the home of the Battlefield Line Railway which was originally part of the 1873 Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway which closed to passengers in 1931 and freight in 1969, when it was saved by volunteers to preserve local rural railway history.  Sadly, it only runs diesel trains during the week and we don’t like diesel trains!  An interesting fact for you!  A significant royal event in the line's history occurred in December 1902, when the brand-new royal train made its very first official outing which was to Shackerstone Station.  Onboard were  King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra, and Princess Victoria.  They were travelling to visit Earl Howe at Gopsall Hall - the famous country estate near Market Bosworth where George Frideric Handel is said to have composed parts of Messiah.
 
We were aiming at mooring on the pontoons at Sutton Wharf where we had moored on the way up.  We pulled in but it was really too hot so we moved on a bit and found a really nice mooring where we could sit out under the trees.

During the evening a very strange boat came passed us.  We had heard about it but hadn’t seen it.  It was exhibited at the 2026 Crick Boat Show and drew a lot of attention and gained names such as the floating shoebox and an air fryer!  We thought it was ugly but I guess there are people out there who like it as is it a hire boat which costs over £1000 for the weekend.  This is NB Theta which is definitely a Marmite boat!

 

11 miles

River Anker Aqueduct (Ashby Canal) – Thursday 23^rd July
 
A mixed day of cloud and sun.
 
The canal seemed to be getting more and more difficult to navigate when passing other boats.  We ended up on the bottom more than once, but nothing serious thank goodness. 

We went passed Hinckley where a railway branch, the Hinckley Branch, was built in the 1870s.  The Midland Railway and the North Western Railway were locked in a territorial was over the lucrative coal and mineral trade in the area. To settle their disputes, they agreed to build a joint network.  The line was completed but before it could open the companies got into a massive corporate deadlock over running rights and operational fees.  Neither side would give in so the line was abandoned without a single train going along it.

We stopped at bridge 23 to go to the Spinney Bank Farm Shop.  It is a must for visitors to the canal.  Our freezer was pretty jammed so I couldn’t buy that much ☹  However I managed to buy two, yummy looking steaks and some bits for the BBQ.  Oh, and one huge onion!!
 
We were hoping to stop at the River Anker Aqueduct again.  We managed on the way up, but only just.  This time the whole mooring stretch was empty – well until we turned up!  However, by about 5pm the stretch was full.

I was doing a few things on the boat and looked out of the side hatch to see what the others were doing - they were all studying their phones intently!

Here is some information on the Ashby Canal. It was authorized by Parliament in 1794 to tap into the rich coalfields and limestone quarries around Measham and Moira. When it was finished in 1804 the entire 30 mile route from Marston Junction to Ashby Woulds was built without a single lock by carefully following the natural 300 foot contour of the land.  In 1846, as the railway boom swept the UK, the canal was purchased by the Midland Railway Company. Unlike many other canals that were immediately closed by railway companies to kill competition, the Ashby Canal remained highly profitable, carrying over 140,000 tons of coal per year well into the late 1800s.  Between the 1940s and the 1960s, because the canal ran directly overactive coal seams, the ground beneath it began to shift and sink. This severe mining subsidence caused the canal bed to crack and lose water. Unable to keep up with the damage, the northernmost 8 miles were progressively closed and abandoned between 1944 and 1966, cutting the navigable route down to its current 22 miles.  In 1966 the very last regular commercial coal boat travelled down the canal, marking the end of its life as an industrial transport network. It was subsequently classified as a "Cruiseway," transitioning entirely into a recreational route for narrowboats. At that point the Ashby Canal Association was formed to stop the canal from being abandoned and filled in  Then in 2000 the Ashby Canal Trust was created as a strategic umbrella group. Its board includes representatives from local authorities, the Inland Waterways Association, the National Forest Company, and the ACA itself. They then launched an ambitious effort to reclaim the lost northern sections. A major milestone was reached when a small, isolated section at the historic Moira Furnace was restored and re-watered. Active work continues to gradually push the main navigation north past Snarestone to eventually reconnect the entire line.
 
8 miles

Cherrytree Farm Bridge No 33 (Ashby Canal) – Friday 24^th July
 
It was goodbye to the Ashby Canal.  I’m glad we did it as it is a lovely canal even though it was shallow.  We had heard that the canal had been dredged earlier on in the year, so were quite surprised it was so shallow in places.  It turns out that CRT had only done a 3.7 mile stretch, not the whole thing!
 
Tracey and I decamped, with the dogs, for a walk to Marston Junction.  We then turned right onto the Coventry Canal.  You may remember when we came off the Oxford Canal onto the Coventry Canal that there is a stop lock as the Coventry Canal Company wanted to protect their water, well it was the same at Marston Junction where they required the Ashby Canal Company to build a stop lock at the junction. In 1819, both companies jointly funded a modification to narrow the lock chamber. The lock gates were eventually removed, leaving the Ashby Canal completely lock-free for its entire navigable length.  Historical maps and archaeological records show that two key canal buildings once flanked the junction: "Lock House" and "Canal House." These provided housing for lock keepers and toll collectors overseeing traffic between the two canals. Although the structures were demolished in the 20th century, their site footprints remain visible near the junction banks.
 

It was so nice to be away from the overgrown and shallow Ashby.  Suddenly it felt as if we were on the M1 of the canals (for the width not the speed!). 
 
We passed Margaret and Tony on NB Huffler.  Margaret is a long time blogger and we have known them for many years now though we haven’t seen them for a long time.  It was really nice to see them.  Once again, I forgot to take a photo, though Margaret took one of us departing and has kindly shared it with me.
 

We stopped near the The Anchor Inn Hartshill and Steve and Tracey went to investigate but decided it was not for us, plus there was a marquee in the garden with people setting up for some sort of a party.  We moved on!  The next place was nice, under the trees with a wide towpath, then we started to smell a rather unpleasant smell, so moved on again.  We were lucky the third time at Cherrytree Farm bridge, it sounded nice and it was.

This photo shows just how low the water level is.

9 miles

August 2026 - Framework knitting, crab-clawing and yoinking!!

Sutton Wharf (Ashby Canal) – Sunday 19^th July
 
The morning was a bit grey but it soon changed into a fairly hot day.
 
We stopped for water at Hinckley, which is not only well known for it’s water tap (!) but it is famous for its framework knitting which was introduced to Hinckley in 1640 by William Iliffe. What is framework knitting?  Well you knit socks and stockings with it! The industry took over the area with most of the knitting done in local cottages by outworkers.  In 1722 Robert Atkins took over the industry and then built a factory in the 1870s.  However in the 1960s, when miniskirts came into fashion, stockings fell out of favour but Hinckley's factories rapidly re-tooled their machines to produce millions of pairs of tights.  The industry finally closed it’s doors in Hinckley in 2002. 

One of the places we like Sutton Wharf is as there is a lovely cafe there!  But on a more mundane subject, there is also toilet emptying, water and rubbish, or there was, it is now closed which was annoying.  There is a nice pontoon just up from the cafe with room for three boats and it was all free :-)  We moved up there and moored up - we were under some trees.  I took Rio for a walk and it was found a lovely copse along the path which was lovely and cool.  Rio decided to roll in the dust and I ended up with a grey/brown dog!

We all walked to the cafe for cocktails!  I had Pimms which was just what the doctor ordered which was followed by an icecream from a little canal boat.  I had taken the watering can with me and got some funny looks, but we wanted to fill it with clean water and try and get our black and white dog back. It almost worked but I think he will still need a proper shower with shampoo.
 
We sat out under the trees and shared a honey and mustard chicken that I had cooked while we had been cruising along.  I like cooking as we are moving and the view changes all the time!  By about 8.30pm we all had jumpers on as it had turned quite chilly.

Sutton Wharf was established when the canal was opened in 1804 as an intermediate loading and unloading point serving the surrounding estates and agricultural villages.  It shipped out things like grain, hay and timber while bringing in lime to fertilize the local clay soils.

 
8½ miles
 
 
River Sence Aqueduct (Ashby Canal) - Monday 20th July
 
It was a chilly night but we seemed to be back to the hot normal again this morning.
 
The canal was quite busy and quite shallow which made all sort of problems when passing other boats.  We came across one chap who had just picked his boat up and was really struggling trying to pass us.
 

We passed Market Bosworth which is well known for the Battle of Bosworth Field which took place in August 22^nd 1485 (197,555 days or 540 years, 10 months, 29 days ago!!)  Henry Tudor’s forces defeated King Richard III, ending the Plantagenet dynasty and establishing the Tudor era/  Richard III was the last English monarch to die in battle.  Some years ago Richard and I walked to the battlefield only to discover that the Heritage Centre and monument are in the wrong place!  Between 2005 and 2009 an archaeological survey proved that the battle was actually fought about one mile southwest!  Cheated or what???

 
Steve knew of a nice mooring place which, when we got there, had space, so we moored up in the shade and, guess what?  We sat out and chatted before having a BBQ.  It was much warmer later on, but we did still need our jumpers about 9pm.
 
I’m  not doing very well with taking photos so far, I MUST TRY HARDER!!
 
7 miles
 
 
Snarestone Wharf (Ashby Canal) – Tuesday 21st July
 
We had a short day today, but we wanted to get to Snarestone Wharf early as there aren’t many mooring spaces and we had a Sainsbury’s delivery booked.
 
Just before the wharf is Snarestone Tunnel which is only 250 yards long.  To go through a tunnel you have to use your tunnel light but Richard discovered that ours wasn’t working.  Enter Linda the Light!  I had to sit at the front with a torch so any oncoming boat could see us.  Bearing in mind I could see the other end, I really don’t think it was necessary.  However, I managed to get, what I think are, a couple of nice photos. 

There were just two spaces left at Snarestone which is what we wanted to see.  We moored up and put the chairs out under a very welcome tree.  Our shopping arrived and it must have been a strange sight with four people grabbing stuff out of crates and stuffing it into bags while calling out “I think this is yours”!  We didn’t need much but I had been working out some recipes to cook for the four of us and needed the dry ingredients.  We also needed wine as when we got our Tesco order last week they had run out of our wine and didn’t substitute it.  It was quite a walk back to the boats especially with bottles of wine.

I asked Jem for to suggest a synonym for “grabbing”  He came up with this, it made me chuckle!!!!

“Ah, the classic supermarket delivery dash! Nothing quite tests your reflexes like being handed a pile of loose crates at the door and having to do a high-speed, military-precision packing operation on the spot. It’s an absolute spectator sport—four people bent double, frantically crab-clawing tins of beans, yoinking loaves of bread from the bottom before they get crushed, and stuffing it all into bags like a desperate Supermarket Sweep challenge.” 

We sat most of the afternoon until dinner time.  I had cooked a chilli and bought all the makings for tacos.  I had bought the crispy ones which were not easy to eat – my t-shirt had to go into the wash!

Snarestone Wharf was originally built as a critical transshipment hub for the rural Leicestershire borderlands, serving local agriculture, brickworks, and minor coal pits.  Deep pit workings beneath the northern Ashby line caused catastrophic sinkage and embankment breaches beyond Snarestone throughout the 1940s and 1950s.  When the final northern section through Measham was officially abandoned in 1966, the canal was truncated immediately north of Snarestone Tunnel at Bridge 62.  In 2009, Snarestone Wharf became the base of operations for extending the canal northwards. The section beyond Bridge 62 was re-excavated and lined, pushing the navigable channel a few hundred yards further toward the new Measham extension site, proving that the lost line could be brought back to life.  Navigation currently extends about 400 meters past Snarestone Tunnel to Bridge 62 (Quarry Lane), complete with a temporary winding hole.
 
3 miles

July 2026 - We are back, but not sure for how long with the water levels as they are

Dunchurch Pools Marina (Oxford Canal) – Wednesday 15th July

We got back to Mary H yesterday, about 3pm, after a good journey up.  We had driven up in the motorhome as we are having a few days away in her for my sister’s 80th birthday once our summer cruise is over.

It was so hot making the unloading a real struggle, but eventually it was done, then the unpacking had to be done.  Eventually the boat looked tidy but not clean as there was a thick layer of dust everywhere.  The spiders had been to work and there were cobwebs everywhere - there was no sign of any spiders though!  Maybe they had finished on Mary H and moved onto next door!

It was an early night and a cool one, I actually had to shut the front doors as I was quite chilly.


Kent Road Bridge No 69 (Oxford Canal) – Thursday 16th July

We were up bright and early as we had a Tesco order booked between 9am and 10am.  As we usually find they are early we were ready by 8.30am - she didn’t come until 9.45am!  I say this every year, but once everything was brought into the boat we wondered where it was all going to go! This year we did have a problem with too much freezer stuff.  Somehow, I had managed to order two large bags of chips and I just couldn’t get both into the freezer.  Fortunately, Tracey said that they could ram them into their freezer - thank you :-)

We left our berth and moved round to the diesel pontoon to fill up and noticed that Over the Moon was waiting for us outside the marina.  After ecstatic dog welcomes and big hugs from the humans we were on our way.

The locks at Hilmorton were the first locks of the trip and we sailed through the first two but only one of the bottom locks was open so we had a hold up there.

I decided to take Rio for a walk to the second bridge.  I was almost there when I got a call from Richard to say that they had decided to stop, so I had to turn round and walk back.  It was so hot and my back was aching - I will say no more   However, it was a really nice spot.  We sat out and had a cream tea (as you do on the towpath!) followed by bubbly - it was really nice.  The cream tea was a late Father’s Day present for Richard from my son, Robert.

5 miles
3 locks


Bridge 12 (Oxford Canal) – Friday 17th July

It was quite a chilly night considering how hot the day had been - we actually had to shut the front doors.  Still, it was much nicer than some of the hot nights we have spent on Mary H over the years.  It was also a much cooler day for cruising and Rio was able to take his rightful place on top of the boat, being the master of all he surveyed! It had been too hot yesterday for him to be up there and he really wasn’t happy!

We had been travelling alongside the railway for quite a while, so didn’t want to moor up at that point, as the noise of the trains thundering passed was very loud.  Once we got away from it, we started to look for somewhere to stop for the night.  We found one place under the trees but we didn’t fit the hole!  We were so close.  We moved on and Steve found a nice spot and moored up, but we couldn’t get into the side.  In the end we reversed back and tied up alongside OTM as the canal was quite wide at that point.

One of the things that has always intrigued me on the North Oxford Canal are all the abandoned parts.  Now I have found my new friend, Jem (Google’s Gemini AI), I asked him and why they were there and what they did to straighten the canal. I am now much wiser!

On this image (courtesy of Waterway Routes, which I use all the time) you can see where the canal used to go. When James Brindley originally designed the Oxford Canal in the 1770s, he relied heavily on the contour method. To save money on building expensive embankments or digging deep cuttings, he wrapped the canal around the natural curves of the hills to keep the water completely level. While this was cheap to build, the route was incredibly circuitous. It was so winding that boatmen used to joke they could cruise for an entire day and still hear the church bells of Brinklow or Braunston!  In the 1820s newer, straighter canals were being proposed that threatened to steal the Oxford Canal's lucrative coal trade between the Midlands and London.  It was also the dawn of steam trains which meant the canal network had to drastically speed up or face extinction. Between 1829 and 1834 a massive modernizing project took place. They essentially took a knife to the canal's squiggly lines, building bold embankments, aqueducts, and deep straight cuttings. This engineering feat shortened the North Oxford route by roughly 11 to 14 miles - nearly halving the original distance.  There was then the question of what happened to the villages and the lucrative trade wharves that sat on the old loops.  The company couldn't just dry them up, so they kept the entrances open, transforming them into dead-end "arms" so working boats could still reach the village wharves.

12 miles


River Anker Aqueduct (Oxford Canal/Ashby Canal) – Saturday 18th July

Last night’s mooring place wasn’t that far from Hawkesbury Junction where the Oxford Canal goes onto the Coventry Canal.  There is a stop lock, Sutton Stop, with a drop of only about 7 inches.  When the Oxford and Coventry canal companies joined their lines here in the late 1700s, they absolutely loathed each other. Water was the lifeblood of a canal, and neither company wanted the other to "steal" their water supply when boats moved between the networks. To solve the bickering, the stop lock was built as a physical gatekeeper. Because the drop is so incredibly shallow, passing through it takes only a minute, making it one of the quickest lock transitions in the country.

Once through the lock there is a lovely basin and then there is a very interesting 90 degree turn to get from one canal to the other.  The turn is just after the lovely Grade II listed foot (or horse) bridge.  In the basin is the Greyhound Inn, it has always looked packed in the past but we were early today and there was just one person having a coffee.

Between Hawkesbury Junction and Marsden Junction sits Charity Dock, which is one of the most famous, eccentric, and unforgettable landmarks on the entire UK inland waterways network. The yard - run for decades by the Gilbert family - is famous for its dense, chaotic, and artistic clutter. I just love it.

At Marsden Junction we turned onto the Ashby Canal, a canal renowned for its water levels - or lack of them!  People had told me that it was 5 inches down on its winter levels which is fine, so we thought we would give it a try.  Waterway Routes shows mooring places and the interactive map was absolutely spot on.  We moored on one side of a bend and OTM on the other but the boat in front of us moved so Steve moved and we were back together again.  The towpath was a bit narrow but we managed to shove our chairs into the hedge and, as the towpath was very quiet, we were able to sit out until dinner time.

9 miles
1 lock