Ansty

 Today's Canal - Oxford

Today started much as the previous few days but noticeably warmer. By early afternoon sunshine arrived with plenty of blue sky. Later, the cloud may a determined effort to return but was beaten off by the much more friendly bright skies.

Soon after we set off we came under Houlton Bridge, the new link to the development site from the rest of the town. We ave watched it being built but when we came this way just two years ago it was complete but shrouded in mist. 

We have seen what seems like almost all of the Clifton Cruisers fleet in the past few days but today was a major turnaround day and the wharf was busy with cleaning and servicing.

Pleased to see that the mural on the former Clifton Railway Bridge has survived remarkably well.

The visitor moorings at Brownsover (Rugby) were chock-a-block so we came onto the water point at Elliot Fields hoping that by the time we had filled up there might be a space as we had planned to do some of our weekend shopping here. Almost as soon as we started to get the hosepipe out the boat alongside the water point moved off and we were able to slip back into its place and still reach the tap to fill up! Once filled we walked to the nearby Tesco and partly re-stocked. The main reason for not doing all of it is that we have now booked two nights mooring in Coventry Basin and so should be able to do more shopping there. Mike has to confess that he made a mess of the online booming - partly because we changed our minds about how long to stay. The booking system does to allow the user to make any changes and it is necessary to contact customer services. We emailed them last night and had a reply almost as soon as it was opening time. First mistake - when we moved Mike had made a typo in entering his mobile number on the CaRT Account page! After a couple of false starts with a dodgy connection we managed to sort it out and it is good to be able to report that the person dealing with it could not have been more helpful - especially when dealing with someone who made more silly mistakes than seems possible! Thanks Sarah.

After setting off once more we immediately passed this apparently uninteresting winding hole. But all is not as it seems.

We mentioned previously about the straightening of the North Oxford in the 1820s. As the canal came to the north of Rugby, Brindley was faced by a significant valley in his way and, with the engineering available to him he had little choice but to go up to the head of the valley and back down again and can be seen in this outline map. The winding hole is actually the point at which the new canal intersected with the old just to the left of the blue balloon symbol in the centre of the picture. So, we shall take a look at a number of the other indications of this huge engineering project - both the old and the new.

Crossing the valley involved a large embankment and a couple of aqueducts. The embankment is lined with dense vegetation so most boaters coming through perhaps do not realise what they are on but occasional glimpses of the buildings either side reveal that the canal is about level with the roof tops.

At least four boatyards we passed today utilise the ends of former loops. Here is the entrance to Rugby Wharf.

The boat just exiting stage right had just been turning around in a winding hole opposite the entrance. The hole is much larger than normal - the line of the old canal came under the bridge and crossed directly over the new line - hence this was originally part of the old main line.

But embankments usually mean also that cuttings have to be made and some considerable distance from Rugby through to Newbold and then on to Stretton is in a cutting.

Alas, all the decorative lights in Newbold Tunnel have now failed. The fittings are still in place. Perhaps in better times someone might think about replacing the bulbs!

As we said at the top of the blog, by 2 o'clock the weather had taken a turn very much for the brighter.

The cutting to the north of Newbold has a warning to go slow as the sides are unstable. As with the Shroppie, although the engineers of the time were able to create these cuttings, they often cut them too fine with the result that even today there are regular land slips.

Orienteering understanding usually progresses when projects push at the boundaries - here even the recently added gabions are failing to hold back the pressure from the unstable bank. No doubt if this was being built today a rather more effective slope would be designed with better understanding of soil mechanics.

Brinklow Marina was also built in the end of a former loop. It initially had a difficult history but very recently was taken over by Castle Marinas and, we hear, is now properly managed - at least bright new signs welcome visitors!

The cottage alongside Bridge 35 is called Boat Inn Cottage. At one time there were many more small inns, especially where workers could take 'refreshment'. We have not found out anything about this particular one but in the process found an interesting piece of history. This article recalls that in 1830 a Beerhouse Act made it legal for anyone, on payment of two guineas, to sell beer from their home - hence a lot more small beersellers! More recently this was a holiday cottage but it looks as if it has reverted to a private residence.

We have included this picture of an unusual boat so that, firstly, we can thank Adam for his interesting titbit on a previous blog, but secondly to give him, or anyone else for that matter,  the opportunity to tell us what was the function of this one.

Just after we passed through the remains of a former railway bridge in Ansty we saw a good mooring spot and pulled in. We had wanted to stop here but thought that it might have been unlikely and that we would have had to look for somewhere a little less orthodox.

We had barely tied up when the steerer on a passing boat hailed us. This was Mark on nb Ellis - we have met before but this was a fleeting catch up as, alas, a boat was coming the other way. His blog normally features on the right side of this page but it is a while since he posted so you may fond that he has dropped off the bottom of the visible list! It seems that his business is on the up again after the horrendous impact of COVID on any hospitality business and smaller ones have perhaps caught the biggest problems. Sorry we could not have talked for longer . . .but that is how life on the canals has always been but at least now we do have the internet (if people would only post to it. Hint!)

11.4 Miles - 0 Locks