Banbury

Today's Canal - Oxford

The forecast for later in the day was not favourable but when we set off there was another great spring morning.

Three locks ahead of us was Broadmoor Lock which, as we will see in a moment, currently has restricted opening hours. As a result we did not delay our departure from usual. Although the sky here is still blue, the first signs of rain clouds were beginning to creep over the horizon,

Clattercote Wharf is a somewhat odd collection of activities - it now has signs saying that it has a registered organic shop.  Not sure if there is an actual shop but a small stall seemed only to be offering a few jars of jams or preserves.

We have never had any reason to stop here but our previous boat, Take Five, had Clattercote Wharf on its name panel until we had the cabin re-painted. Any time we were asked about we had to explain that this was its former home!

Today's first lock was Elkington's. Signs have been posted by CaRT regarding unauthorised running of water. Whilst we know nothing of the background, the wording of the notice suggests that it hides more than it tells!

At  Varney's Lock we met a member of CaRT staff who was carefully running some water down. She explained that this was the result of  the problems at Broadmoor but was unrelated to the above notice. as you may also notice, the sky had  now clouded over)

And so to Broadmoor Lock where we were met by a team of three hefty chaps! Without ex[plaining one of them immediately took our centre line and pulled us right to the front of the lock - we then soon found that we had to keep the prop turning quite fast to keep us there. It seems that the problem is that the nearside top ground paddle is not closing properly which makes it difficult to open the bottom gates. The flow from that paddle into the lock pulls the boat strongly towards the top. The team were the permanent emergency response group - they needed to be rather burly, rather than the usual volunteer teams - but they appeared to make light work of letting us out! We were well within the morning opening session.

We stopped at Cropredy for the full range of services but had to wait a while for another boat to finish. they were also winding in order to return to there nearby mooring and found that the strengthening wind made it rather difficult. Christine popped to the village shop for some milk whilst we waited on the water tap.

As we passed under Cropredy Mill Bridge, there was a brief burst of sunshine.

Slat Mill Lock seems to have been forgotten by the CaRT image makers - the sign is several generations out of date! 

After a lunch break we continued and as we arrived at Bourton Lock a sudden and very intense rain shower arrived.

At Hardwick Lock, the last before entering Banbury, we found that the footboard on the top gate was several inches below the water level, which also cascaded over both top and bottom gates. Mike decided that his boots were not up to wading through that amount of water so had to work the lock, crossing only via the bottom gates, this adding to the time taken to set the lock ready for Christine to bring the  boat in. With such a flow it also meant that both t op paddles were needed in order to make a level. Since we no longer feel up to 'stepping across' a half open bottom gates, Mike was stranded and unable to open the second gate without getting his boots very wet. Fortunately just at that moment a boat arrived wanting to go up and saved Mike's feet.

We know that we are very close to Banbury when we pass Dink and Malc's house - we know nothing about them except that ever since we moored at Lower Heyford some 15 years ago they have had a huge photo decorating the wall.  Not sure but we think it is probably still the same one!

Alongside is a small parcel of land that we noted in our blog two years ago. Whether or not the asking price was eventually paid, someone has bought it and made themselves a permanent mooring, complete with well mowed lawn and parking area. (Sorry, missed the photo op!)

The canalside developments are now complete and all of the moorings were fully taken (despite an earlier boat telling us that there was plenty of room in Banbury!) Boats on either side mean that moving traffic has to be single file - as we discovered when a boat came up from the lock!

As we came down through Banbury Lock the rain worsened and the wind grew so we were rather relieved to find a spot to moor a short distance ahead. Not quite the location we might have dreamed about but we had no inclination to chase the dream! The stove was soon lit and slices of lemon drizzle cake from Wedges was served with mugs of tea.

6.7 Miles - 8 Locks