Monday 15^th October 2018

It was a damp, misty start to the day. We left the mooring before 8am. It was lovely moving down the canal in the semi-light. Very quiet and peaceful. The Hemplow Hills to the left disappeared at their tops in the mist, belying their size.

Around Stockley’s Bridge 31 there were lots of pheasant all along the wooded cutting leading to the A14 bridge. As the main route east to the coast and the port of Felixstowe, it was very busy. The noise was an intrusion but was soon left behind.

We reached Elkington Bridge 28 and moored just after the winding hole and walked up to the village just a few hundred yards away. Elkington is shown on our canal guide as a “long-abandoned village”.

An abandoned village is often related to epidemic, famine, war, environmental change or deliberate clearances. If there are three or fewer inhabited houses, the convention is to regard the site as deserted, if there are more than three houses, it is regarded as shrunken. There are believed to be as many as 3000 abandoned villages in England alone.

In 1377 Elkington was said to have 30 taxpayers over the age of 14. However, in 1412 the village was described as destitute of inhabitants, save the seven who were servants at nearby Pipewell Abbey, due to a pestilence believed to be the plague. Today, the remains of the abandoned village can just be seen through scrubland and undergrowth, although the site was securely fenced off. Separate to this, there is a manor house that is in the process of being renovated, a barn conversion and two other inhabited houses, so perhaps the village is returning. Certainly, it is a tiny, isolated community, but worthy of exploring if only to satisfy curiosity.

After having breakfast, we moved on through some lovely, remote countryside. We stopped for water at Yelvertoft, where a boat had moored on the water point, then skirted around the very recognisable Crack’s Hill with its Millennium beacon, that can be seen for a long way and looks over the site of the Crick Boat Show.

We cruised down the ¾ mile long straight that runs along the three marinas that make up Crick Marina, the site of the annual boat show in June. It is hard to believe that this same stretch of canal, almost empty, is full of triple moored boats at the time of the show.

After passing Crick Wharf, we then came to Crick Tunnel, 1528 yards long. The tunnel walls were a lot cleaner looking than most although heavy with lime scale in places and very wet when these sections were encountered.

Any canal tunnel is a fascinating construction, especially the era they were built in with only hand tools and little or no experience to refer to. Building tunnels was probably the most difficult engineering task facing the early canal builders. They avoided them wherever possible, taking winding routes around hills, or climbing up and over the hills. However, both increased journey times, and the extra locks often led to water shortages at the higher levels.

Tunnels were usually built by laying out the straight route across the hilltop and then sinking a number of shafts which were aligned on the surface. Digging began in both directions from the bottom of all the shafts and from the tunnel entrances. Surveying techniques were basic at first, using no more than plumb lines. The early tunnellers were miners who were not used to taking accurate headings, so the horizontal shafts sometimes didn't meet up correctly, leading to numerous kinks in the tunnels with changes of profile section. 

Tunnellers often met underground water, quicksand and difficult rock formations. Many lives were lost and extra costs and time involved. Tunnels were usually brick lined but subsidence frequently caused problems and led to the closing of a number of tunnels.  

Few early tunnels had towpaths, so the horse would walk over the top and the crew, possibly with some local helpers, would "leg" the boat through, pushing with their feet against the tunnel sides or roof. This was a slow and arduous job, often taking two or three hours and causing considerable bottlenecks, especially if the tunnel was too narrow for boats to pass. Some tunnels had ropes or chains connected to the walls to pull boats through on. Later steam or electric tugs were used before powered narrowboats became common.

Within a short distance beyond Crick tunnel we came to an interesting stretch of canal. The peace and quiet is suddenly shattered when the M1 is passed under, followed immediately by the Watford Locks. Quickly following the locks is the M1 Watford Gap Services, the lorry park being literally across the towpath. The canal then, in quick succession, passes under the Main West Coast Railway line and the A5.

Watford Locks are interesting. Not dissimilar to Foxton, but with two separate locks set very close together, then a staircase of four locks with side pounds, then a separate top lock. In all, it took just less than an hour to transit.

Beyond the locks it was just 2 miles until the end of the Leicester Section of the Grand Union Canal is reached at Napton Junction. We moored at 3:30, just before the junction. It had been a long day and was starting to get cold.

We went for a walk around the junction itself, hoping to get a pint in the New Inn. However, this is another place that doesn’t allow dogs. There was a notice on the door stating this, but you were welcome to sit outside. Fat chance. Why should we give them money only to have to sit outside when it’s cold, wet and miserable?    

This evening the boat is gently vibrating as though a neighbouring boat has its engine running. While it is a quiet night, the rumble of the M1 is not far away and this must be the cause.

Weather: a damp misty start to the day. While the mist cleared the day remained cold and damp.

Day Total: 7 locks; 13 miles; 1 Tunnel; 0 Swing Bridge; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 5.9

Overall Total: 274 locks; 465 miles; 18 tunnels; 2 Swing Bridge; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 285.9