Thursday 22^nd November 2018

We were awake during the night and watched a lovely, bright, full moon in a clear sky with a thick ground mist.

When we woke this morning the world was white after a hard frost. Apparently it got down to -4˚ overnight. The stove has remained light since its first lighting on 19^th October. This morning was no exception and the boat was cold but not overly so, the stove having been damped down overnight. However, we did turn the heating on for ½ hour to warm the boat up while the stove was heating up.

We haven’t had the heating on for some time but the times we have, has been when the boat has become cold. We still haven’t yet mastered the regulating of the heating. If it is left on too long, the boat becomes oppressively hot and remains so for a long time.  

We went for a walk to the nearest village, Stockton. The walk was along a main road to begin with and was not pleasant with all the traffic and narrow verges to walk on. We were surprised, walking up the road, to see a sign showing we were in Stratford-upon-Avon District Council. We are loosely aiming to reach Gloucester via Stratford but, with canal stoppages, it will not be possible to get there until next April!  

Stockton we did not get a feel for at all although the church, St. Michael’s, is small but a lovely building with an impressive stained glass window commemorating their war dead. We continued our walk along a country lane to pick up the canal about a mile downstream from the boat at the far end of Stockton Locks.

It was close to this point where, in 1898, a prehistoric Ichthyosaurus dinosaur was discovered. It now resides in the Natural History Museum.

This whole area has a thriving quarrying industry, quarrying lime and Blue Lias Stone and producing cement. There is a nearby tall chimney that dominates the area, we have been seeing it since leaving Braunston, this is part of the cement works.

The pub on the canal here, the Blue Lias, wouldn’t allow us in with Harvey. We could have sat in the entrance hall though, but we declined, their loss. They had their Christmas decorations up and the whole place looked like a grotto. So many lights and decorations, including a working train with wagons filled with presents, that you couldn’t really find your way about the place.

We walked up the eight Stockton Locks. Picturesque but very quiet, especially on a misty day like today. The locks are very isolated, anywhere else on the system and they would be a tourist attraction in their own right. Each lock was originally duplicated with a wide lock and a narrow one, now disused. The water here is a strange colour which is probably due to the quarrying in the area.

We called into the Boat Inn again where we had a sharing plate of anti-pasti, very nice.

Once back at the boat I went on a foraging trip for firewood. There is something pleasing about gathering something for nothing.

Tomorrow we are moving again, heading back to Braunston but stopping off at Flecknoe, so we might not get internet again. We will be stopping in Braunston for some time. We are having a cover made for the side door which will take Monday to Wednesday. Then Aaron is coming for us on 30^th November and taking us to their house for a few days. We haven’t yet seen their new house.