On Saturday (07/08/2021) our destination was Banbury before the rain started. Luckily it only manifested as a few light showers and other boaters complained that every time they got their wet weather gear on it stopped raining.
We went through six locks including the windswept Somerton Deep Lock and 12 lift bridges, most of which are permanently open.
There was lots of sedge and reeds making the canal narrow.
We passed The Pig Place which is a smallholding which offers moorings as well as the sale of products from their pigs, poultry and sheep.
And we made it into Banbury passing through the lock and the lift bridge by the Mill Arts Centre.
We moored up in our old spot next to the General Foods Sports and Social Club Waterside Bar. Across the canal was Castle Quay Shopping Centre and the historic Tooley’s Boatyard.
Tooley's Boatyard has one of the oldest working dry docks on the Inland Waterways, working continuously since 1778. The site also includes a blacksmith's forge and carpenter's workshop used for building traditional wooden boats.
Steve wandered down to Morrisons to do the shopping and we read our books for a bit before watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Casualty. Vera took her tennis ball to play with down to Spiceball Park under the Tom Rolt Bridge.
Lionel Thomas Caswell Rolt was born in 1910 in Chester. He was educated at Cheltenham College and went on to become a mechanical engineer. In 1939 he decided to devote himself to writing and bought the narrow boat Cressy. He had it fitted out at Tooley’s Boatyard on the Oxford Canal at Banbury.
We lost the ball and had to return in the morning to find it in daylight. It was short lived as Vera dropped it down a deep rabbit hole. We could see what the main pastime of the youths that patronised the Spiceball Park Skateboard Park by the mural.
On the way down to the service area Steve was called upon to rescue a pigeon that was floundering in the canal. He lifted it out but it was injured and/or exhausted after the accident that left it in the water and despite a lady in a wheelchair giving it some seeds, it died and was later seen floating in the lock.
Building work was still going on on both sides of the canal and the Premier Inn towered above us.
On Sunday (08/08/2021) we spent the morning at leisure on the boat in Banbury until Annie and Ian arrived at 14:30 hrs. After a cup of tea on the boat we went for Sunday lunch in Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn. Annie and Ian had visited Annie’s son yesterday and were the worst for wear for a Saturday night on the town in Salisbury.
We tucked into Sunday roast dinner to a soundtrack of vintage ska music which seemed at odds with the atmosphere of the old pub.
It was nice to see beer from Hook Norton Brewery, where we had done the brewery tour a few years ago.
On Monday morning (09/08/2021), Hilary’s birthday, we went into Banbury to find Cotton Clouds Laundry (great way to celebrate her birthday). Annie and Ian had brought some birthday cards from friends in Nottingham and her Auntie Barbie.
We found the laundry in an old market building which was established in 1866 and now housed a Tanning Studio, Banbury Gunsmiths, the seedy looking Venus Night Club (brothel?), Cotton Clouds Laundry and Dry Cleaners, Magazin Traditional Romanesc (Romanian Supermarket), and “Banbury Spicy Kebabish” a Turkish fast food emporium.
Steve had a chat with a narrowboat trader who produces some fine maps of the waterways.
There were some fine old buildings in the town and this Banksie-style artwork.
We decided to spend today here and risk the £25 fee for staying longer than 2 days on our mooring in Banbury behind this little white boat. The new glass fenced footbridge is not open yet, and neither is the new LIDL which is due to open on Thursday (the fun never stops).
Steve and Vera investigated the Old Auctioneer which claimed to be the third oldest building in Banbury. We had lunch on the boat, courtesy of the Boot’s Meal Deal.
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