July 2025 - New Waters

Sandlanding Bridge - No 3 - (Grand Union Canal/Northampton Arm) - Sunday 27th July  

To get back to Gayton Junction we either had to go down through five locks, turn round and then come back up the same five locks or we could reverse back to the winding hole before Blisworth Tunnel.  Mary H does not like going backwards and it is always a problem but it seemed the lesser of two evils!  To Richard’s credit he did it very well, managing to miss moored boats on the way.  One of the boats was a hire boat and I said to them that Mary H didn’t like going backwards and they said that their boat didn’t like going forwards!

All canal tunnels have history but Blisworth has a lot of it.

It is

• 3,075 yards long
  

• The longest wide, freely navigable tunnel in Europe (it's wide enough for two narrowboats to pass in opposite directions)
  

• The ninth-longest canal tunnel in the world
  

• About 143 feet below ground level

Work began in 1793 on the tunnel and at the time was a major feat of engineering with no mechanical machine beyond the basic picks, shovels and wheelbarrows available, all done by hand by the navvies.  But errors made by the contractor left a wiggle in the tunnel, and after three years' work it collapsed due to quicksand, claiming the lives of 14 men. All work had to be abandoned.  In 1802 they tried again. William Jessop, the main civil engineer on the Grand Junction Canal, proposed a flight of locks instead of a tunnel. James Barnes, the resident principal engineer, insisted on the tunnel.  In March 1805, the tunnel was finally opened.

Due to changes in the shape of the tunnel over time, the tunnel became unnavigable. And finally, being un-used it had become in danger of collapse. British Waterways, who ran the canals from 1962 to 2005, were responsible for the major rebuilding of the tunnel in the 1980s, with sections lined with pre-cast concrete rings. It was also used to test out the new materials and techniques that were later used on the Channel Tunnel. 

As you approach the south portal of Blisworth Tunnel (which is Grade II listed) there are a couple of buildings.  I’ve seen both of them being used but they looked very shut up today, but it was a Sunday.

At the other side of the tunnel is an old mill, Blisworth Corn Mill which was built in 1879 by Joseph Westley.  It, too, has a lot of history but I’m sure you are all historied-out by now!  When Richard and I used to pass back in 2009 the building was derelict, but today it is flats, what else?

We stopped at Gayton Junction to use the facilities and I found a swan family - I think there were six!!

 

It was then on to pastures new along the Northampton Arm.  Passed Gayton Marina and onto the moorings on the other side.  Sadly the moorings are right alongside the A43 and it is a busy road, but such is life.

At Gayton services there is a ceramic mural on the wall which marks the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Northampton Arm on May 15th 1815.

4 miles

0 locks

Northampton Town Quay Visitors Moorings (Northampton Arm/River Nene) - Monday 28th July

We really weren’t sure what to expect with the Northampton Flight, which are actually called the Rothersthorpe Locks.  We had heard horror stories of no water, locks that didn’t work and such like.  But hey ho, we were going down!  There are 17 single locks along the 4¾ mile length but the actual flight is 12 locks and they are, literally, one after the other.  Locks 1 to 13 are Grade II listed and date from 1815.

OtM went first and lifted the top paddle as they left the lock so it was full when we got there.  We got about half way down when we started to meet boats coming up, they just slowed us down a bit, but we still did the actual flight (1 - 12) in 2 hours.

Next to Lock 10, a group of wire sculptures stand amongst bits of canal infrastructure, a memorial bench and a bug hotel.

There were still 5 locks left to do, but they were spread out and gave us time to breathe between them.  

Lock 12 is under the M1 and approaching it you can see the A43 too.  In this photo you can just about make out a white lorry through the trees which is on the M1!

The other side of the M1 is a Landrover Jaguar dealership which is huge and must store hundreds of vehicles.

Once through Lock 16 there were some moorings listed, but they really weren’t very nice with blocks of flats overlooking us and goose poo everywhere, so we went down through Lock 17 and out onto the River Nene.  We weren’t too sure if we could moor on the Town Quay but OtM found a space and we breasted up.  It wasn’t a very salubrious place as there was definitely some drug dealing going on.  There were also lots and lots of e-scooters that were whizzing along much too fast - I was glad I wasn’t a pedestrian.  Still at least it wasn’t a noisy spot.

I had read that as part of the IWA Northampton Branch's Art On The Arm initiative, at each lock there is a mosaic plaque set into the grass. Each one depicts an aspect of canal heritage and has a letter with an associated image taken from nature, the letters eventually spell 'The Northampton Arm'.  I forgot about them but Richard said that he had seen them.  I must make sure I look out for them on the way back.

5 miles

17 locks

Hardwater Mills Moorings (River Nene) - Tuesday 29th July

It was a nice quiet night, I had been a bit worried.  Richard and Steve walked up to Northampton Marina to get our EA licences, we are no longer on CR&T waters.

We have 37 locks and 61 miles to cover before we reach Peterborough where we turn on to the Middle Level. Many of the locks are going to be guillotine locks and we soon approached our first one.  The guillotine is electrically operated and is very slow to lower and raise.  All the guillotine gates have to be left open which is OK going down stream but more difficult when we come back.

Some of the gates are quite strange being hollow at the top.

This lovely old bridge has been extended or rebuilt but I just loved it.

We went through Billings Lock where there is Billing Aquadrome, a popular caravan and camping park with leisure facilities and a funfair, which is based around the river and various mature gravel pits. The park is popular with fishermen and water skiers alike

The River Nene flows through the counties of Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk from its sources in Arbury Hill in Northamptonshire.  At 105 miles long, it is the tenth-longest in the UK, is navigable for 88 miles and falls a total of 300 feet in 17 miles.

We joined the Friends of the River Nene before we came away, really so that we could use their moorings.  Environment Agency moorings are few and far between, so it was a good idea to have some extra opportunities to moor.  We chose the first FOTRN mooring which was on the edge of a field and really quiet.

10 miles

10 locks

July 2025 - Hey! Weren't we supposed to go down there??!!

Standingham Bridge - No 28 (Grand Union Canal) - Thursday 24th July

Another chilly day though the thermometer in the boat was reading 22.6o, it's the breeze that's chilly I guess.

We had the seven Buckby Locks to do, so off we went.  It wasn’t a good start as one of the top

gates was absolutely rotten so we couldn’t open it, let's hope it's on the closures list for the

winter.

The locks were busy and it was two in and two out.  Going the other way it was worse and at one lock there was a queue of six boats and two more coming out of the next lock.  Quite how the queue had formed I don’t know, perhaps there were a couple of very slow boats

There are some lovely houses and gardens just below Buckby Top Lock.

It seemed to be a long haul to where we wanted to moor, mainly because we had to go so

slowly passed lines of moored boats.  

For a great part of our journey today we had the M1 on one side of us and the West Coast

Mainline on the other.  It's certainly not an area I would like to moor in let alone live in!

Once moored up we sat out for a while but it was a tad too chilly for Tracey and I, so we retired

inside.

If you are a reader who isn’t a boater you may not have heard of Fund Britain’s Waterways

(FBW).  This is a coalition of organisations representing hundreds of thousands of users and

supporters of inland waterways. They are campaigning for national and local government to

act now and protect the public benefit and natural capital of the waterways.  The FBW is all

about bringing together the widest possible group of organisations and individuals, independenof navigation authorities, with the sole purpose of “campaigning collectively for an increase in

government funding of Britain’s inland waterways to avert their decline, and to promote

awareness of the huge economic, environmental and social well-being value they provide”.  

7 miles

7 locks

Stoke Bruerne Visitors Moorings (Grand Union Canal) - Friday 25th July

The better weather has come back :-)  The only problem is that it is too hot for Rio on the roof. 

While I am down below he is on a chair but as soon as I go up on deck he is up there too.

We passed a huge field of beautiful sunflowers.  

This is Bugbrooke Marina where our canal cruising adventures began.  I met Richard in April

2009 and he had bought Mary H in December 2008 and put her in Bugbrooke.  Richard was

still working full time so we had a few weekends away from there and managed to get as far

as Warwick.  When Richard retired in May 2010 we took off in Mary H and our travels began. 

I was working as a virtual secretary so I was able to work from the boat.

We went under Banbury Lane Bridge which, strangely enough, carries Banbury Lane which

is an old drovers road from Banbury to Northampton, however its origins may go back to

prehistoric times.

Passed Gayton Junction and the Northampton Arm, where we will return on Monday to go

down the notorious Northampton flight.  Through Blisworth Tunnel and out into the sunshine. 

The Stoke Bruerne visitors moorings were pretty empty so we had our choice.  We moored up

and retired to the towpath.

Steve and Tracey’s son, Richard, came late afternoon and a party was soon flowing!  We had

a BBQ on the towpath once it had quietened down, it was delicious.

10 miles

0 locks

  

Stoke Bruerne Visitors Moorings (Grand Union Canal) - Saturday 26th July

It was our turn for visitors today.  My step sisters, Sara and Emma, and their mother, Chris,

were coming.  Sara and Chris had been before in 2022 when we were in Milton Keynes but

Emma was abroad, so I hadn’t seen her for ages.  Sara and Emma are the daughters of my

Mother’s second husband, Richard and they have been part of my life since they were school

girls!  I sometimes look back at photos of Mum and Richard’s wedding and wonder who the

young girls were!

I had left the boat cleaning until this morning as I wanted it to be sparkly!  I don’t think, in fact I

know, that no dusting had been done for 10 months 

I walked down to the Navigation pub to meet them all and it was lovely to see them, they also

hadn’t met Rio before.  Back at the boat we had coffee and then walked back to the Navigation

for lunch.  The food was very good and so was the service.  I think it would probably have been

different if it had been a beautiful sunny Saturday.

After lunch Sara took me to Tescos to top up the cupboards while we could.  As we are

venturing onto new waters we don’t know where there are shops.

Back at the boat we sat out and chatted with cups of tea until it was time for our visitors to

depart.  It was sad seeing them go as I have no idea when I will see them again.

A quick drink (soft!) with S & T and then back on our boats.

July 2025 - Back on the Canals Again

Dunchurch Pools Marina (Oxford Canal) – Monday 21st July

We got back to Mary H yesterday, about 4.30pm, after a long journey as the traffic was bad.

Mary H was very welcoming as usual 🙂.  Richard had been up for a week with his son at the end of June so everything was spick and span - well sort of!  We unloaded the car and had just finished when there was a thunderstorm!  

With everything put away we could make a late dinner and fall into bed.

Rio was only four months old when we were out last summer but he seemed to remember where we were and settled in nicely.

Our trip this year will, hopefully, take us down onto the River Nene, along the Middle Level and then onto the River Cam.  This is the third trip we had planned.  Firstly we were going to go up to Chester and down onto the River Weaver via the Anderton Boat lift before it closed in September - the only problem was that they closed it in January!  Our second proposed trip was up to York, but the water shortage put paid to that, mainly as we should have met Steve and Tracey at Fazeley Junction as they came off the Birmingham Canals but that idea was scuppered by stoppages.  As their only way was south we decided on The Fens.

Hardgreaves Bridge - No 99 (Oxford Canal) - Tuesday 22nd July

We had a Sainsburys delivery in the morning.  Everything got emptied out of the crates and onto the ground - there was masses of it!  18 bottles of wine and 3 boxes of lager were just a start!!  I hasten to add that 6 bottles of wine and 1 box of lager were for S & T!  Once everything was put away, Richard took the car to the overflow car park, and we set off via the fuel pontoon.

Out onto the canal with Rio in his bed on the roof again, he obviously remembered from last year which was a blessing.

Down to Braunston and we turned towards Wigrams Turn.  At the first winding hole we turned and reversed up to a mooring spot, put the pins in and waited for Steve, Tracey and Ted to arrive.  Rio and I walked up the tow path to greet them as they appeared under Hardgreaves Bridge.  Rio went berserk when he saw them and I was worried he might jump in the canal to get to them, but he is a sensible boy and actually doesn’t like water and certainly doesn’t want to swim!  You wouldn’t believe that he has been brought up by the sea!  Once Over the Moon was moored up Ted was allowed off and the dogs went mad chasing each other and rolling about.  Ted is 12 now but you really wouldn’t have guessed it!  

We sat out on the towpath with a bottle or two of wine until about 8pm, fortunately we were only having a stir fry so dinner was nice and quick.  

Strangely enough we met OtM at Hardgreaves Bridge last year too, what a coincidence!

Lord’s Bridge No 8 (Grand Union Canal) - Wednesday 23rd July

We left our mooring at 10am and headed back to Braunston.  Steve needed to go to Midland Chandlers so he turned left at the junction and we turned right and moored up outside Braunston Marina.  When OtM got to us Tracey wanted a bacon sandwich from the Gongoozler’s Rest café but it was closed, such a disappointment ☹️

As we approached the bottom lock the gates were open and there was one boat in the lock but we pulled over and yelled that we were together so could we please give that locking a miss.  As usual Tracey and I were at the helms while the boys did the locking.  The lady lockie said how nice it was to see women steering and not doing the hard work!  

The flight was quite busy with boats coming down as we were going up.  All was going well until two boats in one of the locks, which were tied together, couldn’t get out as one of the gates wouldn’t open.  They fiddled about until eventually they managed to untie and move out.  The top lock seemed to come quite quickly really and that was the 6 Braunston Locks ticked off!

Braunston Tunnel was Rio’s first tunnel and he couldn’t have cared less!  Muffin used to sit with me and shake!  Rio really is so chilled and laid back!

We pulled over not far before Norton Junction.  It wasn’t a pleasant afternoon, it seemed chilly and grey.  If it wasn’t for the fact that the inside of the boat was 21o I would have lit the fire!

We retired to our own boats as it was too chilly to sit out.  We joined forces for a glass or two of wine then we had to go back to Mary H as we had a Zoom call we needed to be on.

I threw some swan and duck food into the water for this family, it was chaos!

5 miles

6 locks