Last night the clocks went back which heralded a remarkable change in the weather from yesterday. We awoke, body clocks a little confused, to clear blue skies but a sharp edge to the temperature.
The foliage had white frosty edges and a nearby field looked, through the trees, as if it had a covering of snow, rather than frost.
We aimed to go to the morning service at Rowington Parish Church, a short distance away, across the other side of the canal. However, it was not until 11 so Mike filled the time by preparing the evening meal. With the clock change it would be ark soon after 5 and our aim was to be above the Lapworth flight or as much of it as possible) by tonight.
Just after 10:30 we locked up the boat and set off along the towpath. The church cannot be seen from the canal, but is just behind the trees in the centre of this photo.
The church looked even smarter today in the sunshine.
Inside it is quite substantial - with only a small number (there were 11 of us all told) it was only planned to use the choir stalls - but reasonably light and open.
The east window has a modern stained glass which was created for the millennium.
A group interested in studying icons as well as spending time writing their own, meets regularly at the church and quite a number, or reproductions of famous ones, were on display.
We were made very welcome and the service, Morning Praise, followed a distinctly Celtic pattern.
We chatted for a while afterwards but wanted to get back to the boat so that we could make good time to our target for tonight.
After a quick change into 'boat' clothes we set off and arrive at Kingswood Junction about 20 minutes later. Here we turned sharp left and then moored briefly so that we could empty the elsan. W id niot intend to fill with water as ewe know that the tap is quite slow - just as well as another boat was filling up and looked to be there for a duration!
We came up the by-pass lock which is now back in action after a period waiting for repair (an alternative route is available via another link)
It was also good to see that the footbridge below lock 19 has also been replaced - it was in a poor condition when we last came through here.
For the first few locks we manage to persuade a couple walking the towpath to help close up the top gates - they suddenly disappeared so we could not thank them.
Sometimes the coping stones are marked with he maker's name. These were from W Bennitt Oldbury. Of course there were many small independent brick works at the height of the industrial period and we have found only a couple of references - one in a thesis about the impact of industrialisation on Oldbury mentions a Captain William Bennitt who owned four blast furnaces whilst another web site about coping stones shows a similar marking but refers to a Pynson Wilmot Bennitt in the 1870's so we are not really much wiser! However , the bricks seem to have lasted well.
We were assisted by a volunteer lock keeper for much of the flight - he was very efficient and effective so we flew up the flight - overall we took little over two and a half hours.
He left us to complete the last four on our own as two hire boats arrived and would need to make good speed to find somewhere to moor before it became too dark to continue.
Beside one of the locks we saw this tree which seemed to make an interesting picture.
Almost at the top we noticed this modern house which has a very striking appearance.
A woman was sitting in the sunshine outside the cottage below the top lock busy spinning wool on her treadle machine.
Soon after the top lock we were hoping to moor but some unfriendly signs on the adjacent properties deterred us (even if they were not official) so we had to work through the first of the lift bridges - 53 turns on the windlass to raise it! There followed a long line of permanently moored boats but there was a convenient spot just beyond them - fortunately before the next lift bridge!
4.3 Miles - 19 Locks
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