On Monday (20/09/2021) we continued along the Ashbury Canal.
On the way we passed this boat which seemed to home to a whole flock of (homing? racing?) pigeons.
A woman was feeding them and this attracted swans and ducks to the frenzy.
We filled up with 44 litres of diesel at Trinity Wharf at Hinckley on the Ashbury Canal.
We completed our spell on the Ashbury Canal and turned left onto the Coventry Canal at Marston Junction and headed south through Bedworth to Hawkesbury Junction with it’s distinctive engine house.
We did a U-turn and joined the queue for the stop lock which would take us onto the Oxford Canal.
We passed lots of electricity distribution paraphernalia.
There were power stations and pylons everywhere.
We passed under the M69 and the M6 motorways where traffic moved at a much greater speed than us.
Another boater had already opened the foot swing bridge at Rose Narrowboats so we were able to stay on the boat and chug through without stopping.
We went under bridge 34 and moored up near the village of Brinklow.
The Oxford Canal was authorised in 1769 and the section through Brinklow was completed in 1778. The original route of the canal crossed Broad Street (B4455) near the Church Rooms, circled through the playing fields to the west of the village before crossing the Lutterworth Road again at the north end of the village. This brought much trade and prosperity to Brinklow. However, by the late 1820s, the extravagant winding contour route of the Oxford canal had become outdated. It was said that boatmen with their horse-drawn boats could hear the sound of Brinklow church bells ringing for morning and then evening prayer on the same day!
To maintain its competitive edge much of the northern section of the canal between Braunston and its junction at Hawkesbury with the Coventry Canal was straightened with massive engineering works creating embankments and cuttings. This cut off nearly 14 miles of its length and much of the original course consequently became disused.
Some of the loops remain at least in part such at the arm leading north from the boatyard at Stretton Stop. Although much of the original route has been abandoned it can still be traced and parts are still in water such as the stretch running west from the Rugby Road. Steve and Vera walked into Brinklow to explore.
Brinklow sits astride the former Roman Fosse Way and is most notable for the remains of a large Normanmotte-and-bailey castle (Brinklow Castle, known locally as The Tump or the Big Hill), which is one of the largest and best preserved of its type in England. The castle is believed to be built on the site of an ancient burial mound or Roman signal station, although this has not been confirmed.
Brinklow contains a 13th-century church, a primary school and several shops. Brinklow was established as a market town during the Middle Ages, and was once considerably more important than it is today.
There was a small convenience store and three pubs in this quaint little place.
The White Lion had the most complicated wifi code to date. And it was Butcombe Original rather than Atlantic Pale Ale.
The Bulls Head looked great but was closed until Wednesday, and it was only Monday. It was a gastropub with rooms.
This road sign shows we were out in the country!
Back on the boat Steve coughed up £2.49 to Amazon for Episode 1 of Mare of Easttown which Hilary had seen rave reviews for. A young woman is murdered in a small Pennsylvania town. On the case is Detective Sergeant Mare Sheehan (played by Kate Winslet), a highly skilled crime investigator. She has spent all of her life in Easttown and knows everybody in it. However, her life is dark and troubled, due largely to the recent death of her son. We watched the first episode via our Roku stick on Amazon Video.
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