Saturday, Sunday 19th/20th January 2019



We haven’t moved. Grieving.



We haven’t done a great deal. A few walks down the locks and a visit to Hillmorton to the local shops. Hillmorton Arm is a busy place. All the old wharf buildings are occupied by small businesses and the arm itself, with its iconic crane, is full of boats and has a drydock.

The locks have lines from a poem cut into the beams, one set of gates have “This door makes depth captive for a while” the other has” Working water climbs carefully down”.

We have intended, all along, to only explore places when we do the whole length of that particular canal. However, Hillmorton is not worth the exploring and any boaters that do not venture into the town are not missing anything. The canal, wharf and church, with its vestry about to be demolished, are separated from the town by the high railway embankment through which passes a tall road bridge. The town appears to be an overspill for Rugby and is one huge, rough looking, uncared for council estate.

We didn’t linger.

We had let the stove burn out over Saturday night as we want to experiment with the central heating. We know the heating does work but we have only ever turned it on and, when it becomes warm enough, switched it off. We have never tried controlling the heating with the thermostat. The boat is going to have to be left at some point, hence the test.



Weather: mostly dry and mild.

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