Sunday 14^th April 2019

The first lock of the day was just 100 yards from the mooring. The barrel-roofed cottage beside the lock is particularly attractive and is a rentable holiday cottage. There had been three generations of the Taylor family had lived in this house, all lock-keepers, the last family member having died in 2005.

We passed through eight locks today, all of them much easier than those of yesterday, and all in a lovely countryside setting, very rural.

At Bucket Lock 34 at Yarningdale, the canal passes over a small stream on an interesting little aqueduct. The aqueduct is made of cast iron sections bolted together and the towpath going over it drops down to the level of the bottom of the sections such that, when standing on the towpath, you are looking up at the boat. As with so many cast iron structures on Midland canals, this aqueduct was made by the Horsley Iron Co. of Tipton and is dated 1834.

Preston Bagot Middle Lock 37 had a particularly interesting barrel-roofed cottage beside it. While it was not the most attractive, it was built in 1810 and extensively renovated and extended in 1989 and looked curiously like Admiral Boom’s house in Mary Poppins. The owners of this cottage were strimming and cutting the grass around the lock. They were very rude people and would not stop the cutting while we were in the lock, throwing grass cuttings all over the boat. Luckily no stones, that would have led to a different outcome. Surely people who live beside canals and locks would be expected to be nice to passing boaters.

Preston Bagot Bottom Lock is positioned right next to a skewed road bridge with no lock landing. The bridge itself was very unusual in that it was also built of cast iron sections. The exit from the bottom of the lock was very narrow and passed under the road. Brenda had to cross the road to get back on the boat and, with the confines of the canal, it was difficult to manoeuvre for her to board.  

                                                               Preston Bagot Bottom Lock

The canal below this lock was extremely shallow. The speed of the boat slowed right down and you could feel her pushing her way along. At one bridge hole we actually almost came to a standstill and had to put power on to move at all.

We met a number of boats on this last stretch. One was pushed across the canal in front of us by the wind and caused us to go aground, and another forced us close to the bank and also grounded us.

We moored just after bridge 53 outside Wooton Wawen. A lovely quiet, country mooring. We had drinks in the front cratch and then our Sunday dinner. We were visited by a Black Swan. I had never seen one before. They are native to Australia and all wild birds in this country are descended from escapees from private collections. There were just 9 breeding pairs in this country in 2001 and an estimated 43 feral birds live mainly in four groups around the country, so we were very fortunate to have seen this one. However, we made the mistake of feeding it and all night long it was pecking the hull.

Weather: a cold but sunny day.

Day Total: 8 locks; 4 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 4.2

Overall Total: 439 locks; 816 miles; 42 tunnels; 11 Swing Bridges; 3 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 530.6