Ansty (North Oxford Canal) – Sunday 15th April

Rain was forecast for the afternoon so Richard decided to get away before 10am.  However as he went to start the engine the battery was dead ☹  He said he had been expecting it!  He managed to divert the solar panels to charge the battery up a bit and, even though it was grey the battery had enough oomph to start the engine in just over an hour.

We stopped at Rose Narrowboats and Richard managed to get a new battery and struggled back to the boat with it!

We stopped at Ansty for lunch but, once again, we stayed put as the rain started.

  

I’m bored – will this rain ever go away!

Richard disappeared down the engine bay to change the battery and eventually came out – a successful job done!

The Domesday Book of 1086 mentions Ansty as part of the hundred of Brinklow - the main landowner was Lady Godiva!  Its toponym comes from Old English Ānstīg meaning "one-path", i.e. "lonely or narrow path" or "path linking other paths".  A cottage industry of weaving developed in the parish from early in the 18th century. This grew into a substantial ribbon-making trade early in the 19th century but declined in the 1830s. James Brindley completed the section of the Oxford Canal through Ansty in 1771. In November 1963 a 30 foot high embankment on the towpath side gave way, spilling 10,000 tons of sand and clay onto adjoining land. 

I’ve got a new camera with a much better zoom.  I took this from up near Brinklow Castle – chuffed!

The Oxford Canal was originally built as a contour canal, meaning that it twisted around hills to minimise vertical deviations from a level contour. However, with one eye on the developing railway network, in the 1820s the northern section of the canal between Braunston and Hawkesbury Junction was straightened out to reduce navigation time. This work reduced the distance by 14 miles. The section south of Napton was never straightened.  The northern section of the Oxford Canal between Coventry, Braunston and Napton remained an important trunk route, and remained extremely busy with freight traffic until the 1960s. The staple traffic was coal from the Warwickshire and Leicestershire coalfields to London via the Grand Union Canal. However, the southern section from Napton to Oxford became something of a backwater and carried mostly local traffic.

4.53 miles

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