New Banbury Lane Bridge No 43A - (Grand Union Canal) - Sunday 17th August
I’m putting this photo in for Sunday as I took it about 12.15am!
Yesterday I said we had moored at a milepost - Braunston 23 Miles. I managed to find it this morning along with the Grafton overflow weir which takes any excess canal water onto the River Tove, except that it is bone dry as there is no excess water in the canal at present, in fact the water level is very low, as I’m sure you can imagine.
We left our mooring just after 9am as other boats were passing us and would get into the queue before us. What queue you may ask??!! We now had three flights ahead of us which were only open between 10am and 3pm, so we knew there would be a queue at all of them. Today it was the seven locks of the Stoke Bruerne flight. When we arrived there was a queue! Three pairs of boats all waiting. We joined the queue and were given the numbers of seven and eight.
It was about 10.30am when we made our way into the bottom lock (number 20). There were 6 boats behind us in the queue by this time. Up we went and out and then STOP! The pound above was too low for the boats in lock 18 to get out. We had to wait while water was run down - we must have waited for about half an hour.
After that it was fairly easy with two boats out of a lock and two in. The top lock was our only problem as it was full so Tracey and I had to hover while it was emptied. We tried to go in together but it was too tight, I got caught under a willow tree and crashed my way into the lock watched on by a crowd of gongoozlers - of course I had done the previous six locks perfectly! It took us 1 hour and 50 minutes which isn’t too bad.
Through Blisworth Tunnel with a shaking dog. It really is strange how Rio didn’t mind the first three tunnels we did then suddenly he seems frightened. He kept crawling up me until he was over my shoulder!
We moored up in the shade of an oak tree, I only hope these acorns don’t keep dropping on the boat all night!
8 miles
7 locks
Below Buckby Top Lock (Grand Union Canal) - Monday 18th August
My last day on the boat as I am decamping tomorrow to go home for a funeral and by the time
I get back on Thursday, Richard should be back in the marina. We will stay onboard for a
couple of days but I don’t class that as actually being on the boat!
We had three hours cruising to get to the bottom of the Buckby flight, where the plan was to
go up six locks and moor below the top lock so I could get a taxi from the New Inn and the top
lock.
At Weedon is the entrance of a derelict canal, the Ordnance Canal, which linked the Grand
Union to The Royal Military Depot. An act of Parliament was passed in 1803 for the purchase
of 53 acres in Weedon, ‘for erecting buildings thereon for the service of His Majesty’s
Ordnance’. The Depot had a barracks for 500 men, eight storehouses and four magazines.
The storehouses had two storeys and were divided into four rooms. One of the buildings was,
at a later date, converted into a Military prison with three storeys and containing 121 cells. An
adjoining building was used as the hospital and one of the adjacent buildings housed a
chapel. Gunpowder was delivered to Weedon by barge, where it was packed into barrels and
boxes and re-issued. Three spacious white brick buildings, later known as the Pavilion, were
built at the same time as the depot, they were for the Governor and two Principal Officers, but
were later earmarked to be used as a residence for King George III should the threatened
Napoleonic invasion take place, something that the Weedon Bec History Society deny. “You
may have heard the story that Weedon Depot was intended as a retreat for George III’s family
in the event of war - not true!”
The Buckby flight was a nightmare ☹️ When we got to the bottom the lockies waved us in with
another boat. Richard said no thank you, we want to go up with OtM. We had no choice
apparently! The other boat was in the middle of the lock and had his pram cover up! Finally the
lockies told him to move over and as we went in he poked his head out and said that he was a total
newbie! He had just picked the boat up from Whilton Marina (based at the bottom of the locks). It
was the first lock that he and his wife had ever done. I said that the first thing to do was put the
pram cover down! I gave him as much advice as I could and by the time we got to the top he was
pretty proficient. His wife, however, was very slight and really struggled with the paddles and the
locks. Richard showed her what to do and she soon got the hang of it, but quite how they were
going to manage on their own I don’t know. Richard reckons it won’t really work for them as she
really wasn’t enjoying it. He, on the other hand, was so excited (he kept telling me this). They were
heading to Sheffield! Good luck to them, I hope they make it one day!
The locks on the Buckby flight are not good, they leak like mad.
We pulled over before the top lock for the night, so that I can get a taxi from the pub at the top lock
to our marina tomorrow.
10 miles
6 locks
Dunchurch Pools Marina (Grand Union Canal) - Tuesday 19th August
Me - I said goodbye to everyone and left them about to go into the Buckby top lock. My taxi
was waiting at the New Inn and we set off for Dunchurch Pools where I was going to pick the
car up. I was rather worried that it might not start but it jumped into action at the first push of
the ignition. The journey home to Hayling Island wasn’t too bad and took me about 3½ hours.
It was nice to be home š
Richard - Tracey took Rio on board OtM as we weren’t too sure how much I would be on and
off the boat. Up through Buckby top lock and off to Braunston Tunnel. At Braunston top lock
there had been an incident where a windlass had flown off and hit the lady on the head.
Apparently she hadn’t put the ratchet on across the winding mechanism and it flew off.
Believe it or not it was the woman who we shared Buckby Locks with yesterday - the total
newbies. There was blood everywhere and an ambulance had been called. This would have
been the first lock they had done on their own. Linda’s last words to her yesterday was to be
very careful with the windlass and make sure the ratchet is on otherwise the windlass could fly
off and hurt someone. I shared the locks with a hire boat with three people on board so it
worked well. Steve had to go down on his own again ☹️ I said goodbye to Steve, Tracey and
Ted, rescued Rio and cruised back to the marina.
8 miles
7 locks
To sum up. I arrived back at the boat yesterday, Thursday. Sadly our summer cruising is over
for this year, we have had to cut our trip short by about two weeks, but we aren’t the only
ones. I feel sorry for the people who have booked hire boats who will now miss out on their
holiday. We have no idea how long the canals will be locked down for - weeks, months, who
knows?
The trip down the River Nene was our third choice for this year. Our first choice had been to
go up the Trent and Mersey and down the Anderton Boat Lift onto the River Weaver. The boat
lift broke down in January and hasn’t been repaired yet. Our second choice was to go up to
York but Yorkshire was the first area to put a hosepipe ban in place, so we decided that really
was a no go. Neither OtM nor us had been down on the Nene, Middle Level or River Great
Ouse, so we chose that. I was very disappointed when we had to turn round at Oundle but,
as it turned out, it was for the best because if we had been on the Great Ouse when the
closures were announced we wouldn’t have had enough time to get back to our marinas and
would have been stuck until the water levels went back to normal.
Our totals for the year were
185 miles
140 locks - that's 70 locks all done twice!
31 days
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