Sent to Coventry

Wednesday 9^th September 2020

Today we were going to be going onto new waters again, as we planned to turn down the Coventry Canal from Fradley Junction, heading for Birmingham. Looking ahead, Friday was going to be a big day, 27 locks up into Birmingham. To put ourselves in position for that, on Thursday we would have to go up the eleven locks at Curdworth. So our plan was to take it fairly easy today – there were four locks to climb to Fradley, but after that we would be in a long single pound on the Coventry, and we planned to finish early.

We started at about 10:30, and the four locks were no problem. I had to wait as a boat came out of the third one, and I recognised the steersman – he is a solo boater who has a YouTube channel called Cruising the Cut. He was a TV journalist who gave up work to live on the boat, and he is a good vlogger, comfortable in front of the camera, and with a journalist's sense for how to put information across. I follow a number of vloggers, but he was the first I found, and I have got a good few useful tips from the channel. When I got through the lock and told Loulie about him she said that he had been filming, and had explained to her who he was. Sure enough she appeared on an episode on his channel, helping him through the lock, and I even got a mention for having the foresight to leave the previous lock gate open to let him in.

We ascended the final lock, and turned left onto the Coventry Canal. There is a small swing footbridge just beyond the junction, but this had been opened by a boat going in just ahead of us, and as there was a boat waiting to come through the other way we did not have to close it behind us.

The is a water point just past the bridge which I had been hoping to use, but there was already a boat there and another waiting, so we pressed on. The map had shown a marina with water point and diesel here, but I had made an error, and it was in fact on the T&M beyond the junction. So we carried on, but I was keen to get water, and a pumpout and diesel too if possible, before we went into Birmingham.

Bridge on the Coventry

Earlier in this trip we had explored new waters on the Trent and Mersey, but today we were on an entirely new canal. This is an “old” canal, built in the 18^th century, snaking through the countryside, by contrast to the canals built by Telford 50 years later, like the Shroppie – he used embankments and cuttings to make the route as straight and quick as possible. In this the Coventry is like the Trent & Mersey, but each canal has its own little peculiarities. We noticed that the bridges all had little windows in the brickwork, about three feet tall, covered with a wooden panel and a padlocked grating. We were unsure what these might be, but later we discovered that they are where they stored the stop planks which could be used to seal the canal in an emergency, if there was a breach, or if they wanted to drain a section for maintenance. On the canals around us these are kept out in the open, or under a little roof. Another oddity on this canal was a swan and cygnet which pursued us for quite a distance, paddling and splashing almost frantically to keep up with us. Maybe they had been fed something very nice from a boat looking like ours, we couldn’t see any other reason why they chose to pursue us particularly.

A mile or so from Fradley the map showed two possible places to get the services we needed. The first, at Streethay, was on a wharf on the main line, and when we got there we found a boat taking on diesel, oddly moored so that he stuck out and partly obstructed the channel. There were also a couple more boats which seemed to be waiting, so we pressed on. The map showed a marina only a short way further on, so we turned in to the entrance there – this is a much more modern place, built off the main line with an entrance under a bridge on the towpath. We sailed through to the wharf at the rear where the services were, and I made a very satisfying landing, turning the boat broadside on and letting the wind push me gently into place.

 We had made a good decision to come here and not queue at Streethay – we were able to get all we wanted in one spot – pumpout, diesel and water, and even dumped our bin bags in their skip. I was alittle concerned that the wind might give me problems getting off the lee shore, but a bit of work with the bow thrusters gave me the angle I needed and we sailed away in an elegant curve, and back out onto the canal.

Very soon we came to Huddlesford Junction. This is where the Lichfield canal took off to the west, to Lichfield and beyond, meeting up with the northern part of the Birmingham Canal Network. There are plans to restore this, and indeed there is an aqueduct in place to take it over the M6 toll, if it ever gets that far. However at present the canal only goes a few hundred yards west from the junction, and this section has been commandeered by a boat club for their moorings – you can’t enter the stub of the canal unless you are a member.

The canal went around the outskirts of the village of Whittington, a nice looking place with a lot of attractive canalside gardens. We then headed out into more open country, and started looking for moorings. Just after three we found a nice snug spot on a curve, just before a stretch which had fairly unattractive banks of solid stone. We moored up and I went for a run along the towpath, while Loulie took the dogs for a walk. She found a splendid wood across a bridge, part of an MoD firing range which is closed off when it is in use. As I was running back Loulie stopped me to help her rescue Minnie, who had gone down a slope and jumped into the river Tame, and could not get out. Happily I was able to pull her out without falling in myself, this time.

Dog walking near Hopwas

TODAY: 4:45 HOURS. 7.9 MILES. 4 LOCKS.

Voyage: 43:55 HOURS. 79.2 MILES. 49 LOCKS.

In the Footsteps of the Legions

Saturday 5^th September 2020

It being Saturday we wanted to be sure to get the papers, so before setting off we walked the dogs up into Tuppenhurst village, to a one-stop shop there, about a mile. I like these trips into random small towns and villages from the boat – these are not special places, tourist destinations, just little towns and villages which happen to be close to the canal, but each one is unique in its own way, and special to the people who live there. As we were walking back we met someone with a small dog who asked us if they could introduce it to our pack, as they were trying to get it used to socialising with other dogs. Of course our lot just loved saying hello.

It was only  a couple of miles from our mooring to the first lock of the day, Wood End Lock. Wood End Turn, which is just beyond the lock, is the southernmost point of the Trent and Mersey canal. I mentioned in the last blog that the canal runs down from Preston Brook, round the bottom end of the central highlands and then back north to the Trent. Well Wood End is the point where it stops going south east and turns to the north east.

Wood End Turn

Wood End is also the start of the Fradley Junction locks, as far as the CRT are concerned – they had a volunteer manning this lock, and checking the licences of each boat going through. After Wood End there is still about half a mile, round the Turn and down to the junction proper, where there are five locks in quick succession. Fradley is the point at which the Coventry Canal takes off south, and we will be coming back here in a few days time on our way to Birmingham. For now, however, we were sticking with the Trent and Mersey. The Junction has been developed as a local tourist destination, with a nature reserve, pubs and restaurants, quite a nice lively place, even with Covid on the go. There were volunteers helping us through most of the locks, and it all went smoothly.

Fradley Junction

Below Fradley we went through a couple more locks before coming to Alrewas. This is a very nice canalside village, but the main point of interest, and the reason I knew of the place, is that below the village the canal joins the River Trent and the two become one for about a mile. It is not very dramatic – below Alweras Lock the river comes in from one side and you travel along what looks like a normal canal, if fairly wide, until the river leaves you over some sluices before Wychnor Lock. However this assumes normal river levels – when the river is high the navigation is closed between those two locks, so I regularly see warnings of closures between Alweras and Wychnor. It was good to finally pass these places, though happily the level was normal for our journey.

The Trent between Alweras and Wychnor

One of the nice things about canal travel is the variety of scenery you pass, from rural idyll to city squalor, and we had an abrupt change now. Along the Trent from Alweras to Wychnor Lock is entirely rural, with a couple of scattered houses and a church overlooking the river. Then after the lock you are suddenly running closely parallel to the A38 trunk road, so close in places that there is not much more than the towpath’s width between you and the lorries. The road is arrow-straight here – it is the Ickneild Way, though I doubt that a Roman Legionary would recognise the road now.

The Ickneild Way in 2020

About half way along this stretch there is a marina with a hire boat company, and Saturday is clearly changeover day, as we passed a constant succession of boats heading out. Beyond the marina the canal veers away from the main road and passes a water park before going through the brewing town of Burton-Upon-Trent. As with other places like Stoke, the canal was a major contributor to the growth and success of Burton, allowing them to ship their beer out to markets across the country. It’s a pretty dull town to pass through, though we did have some amusement when a boater, clearly blind drunk (he had a bottle of gin next to him) veered across the canal, tried to moor in a tree and wobbled away behind us.

It was starting to get late, and we were looking for moorings. The A38 had rejoined us on the other side, and we did not want to try to sleep within earshot of that traffic. After we had turned away we struggled to find anywhere very salubrious until we reached the village of Willington. This had a long line of moorings, but they were mostly full. One spot looked promising until we realised it was opposite a winding hole. We tried again a little further on, but we found that the bank had fallen in, leaving debris preventing us getting close. However by pulling forward a bit from here we eventually got a snug berth, though close to other boats and beside a busy towpath, with a railway just behind for good measure.

TODAY: 8:00 HOURS. 17.7 MILES. 14 LOCKS.

Voyage: 34:10 HOURS. 67.8 MILES. 47 LOCKS.