Tuesday 16th
April 2019
We were only intending to travel 3½ miles today and so had a leisurely
start, such a hard life we lead. We revisited the Yew Tree Farm shopping
village specifically for the farm shop. The shopping village is based in the
old farm buildings, stables, diary etc and consists of several boutique style
businesses. Brenda went into a clothes shop and saw a lovely blouse and
waistcoat set but they didn’t have them in her size, she was very disappointed.
In the farm shop we expected to see mucky vegetables fresh out of the ground
but instead were met mainly with a selection of horrendously expensive produce.
While we do like to support local businesses and enterprises, you don’t like to
feel as though you are being ripped off for some quirky, 21st century,
in-vogue product.
We
left the mooring and almost immediately passed over the aqueduct which took me
completely by surprise. With it being no more than a series of cast iron
troughs, there was no barrier whatsoever on our steering position as we crossed
over the road at a height of about 30 feet with nothing between the boat and
the drop.
Less
than ½ mile from Wotton we came across yet another new marina, this one still
under construction but never the less with a couple of dozen boats already in
residence. It was at this marina entrance that we saw our first ducklings of
the season, a Mallard with nine young. We also saw a lot more lambs, in one
field a great number of new-borns. It is always nice to see the lambs, they are
so enthusiastic about life, frolicking about, and yet for such a short time.
There are more and more flowers starting to show and throughout the whole day
we saw many Cowslips on the towpath.
Brenda
saw the boat through Bearley Lock and then decided to walk the 2½ miles into
Wilmcote with the dog for some time on her own. Unfortunately, while it had
been spitting up until this point, it then came on to rain.
Just
beyond the lock we came to Edstone Aqueduct, the third aqueduct on the South
Stratford Canal yet far bigger than Yarningdale and Wotton before it. While
there are many very impressive aqueducts on the canal system, once the
Pontcysyllte Adueduct on the Llangollen Canal has been seen, then no other can
match it for sheer size, scale or majesty, however, each must have its merit.
As with Yarningdale and Wooton, the Edstone Aqueduct has no barrier on the off
side but it is very much longer and higher. The three aqueducts are unusual in
that the towpaths are at the level of the canal bottom and form part of the
baseplate. It is the longest canal aqueduct in England and carries the canal
for 250 yards, supported on 13 brick columns which vary in height from 8 to 11
metres, crossing a minor road, a double tracked railway and the trackway of a
former railway, now a farm road. At one time the railway fitted a feed from the
canal to enable steam locomotives to fill with water from the canal.
Edstone Aqueduct
We were intending to moor at Wilmcote, the
home of Mary Arden’s House, William Shakespeare’s mother. The only moorings for
Wilmcote are located before Featherbed Lane Bridge 59 but the towpath here is
being upgraded so what moorings are still available do not have access to the
village so we had to continue on. The canal bank beyond the bridge did not
allow for mooring and we quickly came upon the first 11 closely grouped locks
of the 17 locks descending into Stratford itself.
It was really poor to consider the amount of money
CRT spend, for example, on towpath upgrades to benefit an activity that, financially,
does not contribute whatsoever to the upkeep of the canal system, yet when we came
to the first lock the metal piling was in such bad state that the boat had to
be held off it for fear of damaging, and possibly holing, the hull.
There is nothing worse than setting a goal for
the day and having to go beyond it, especially when it is cold, windy or
raining. A volunteer lockkeeper informed us that we would have to carry on for
11 locks before any chance of mooring. However, after just 3 locks we easily
moored up in the lock pound. And typically, minutes before, it stopped raining.
It was a lovely spot.
We went for a walk around Wilmcote. Seemingly
very expensive and upmarket with many properties behind automatically operated security
gates. The church of St. Andrews was only built in 1841 but, being in the
Gothic style, appears much older. The inside was decorated with zinc plate wall
paintings that really darkened the place and gave it a menacing feel.
Apart from the ‘Mary Arden’, the main pub in the village, there was another, the ‘Masons Arms’. However, we couldn’t decide if it was open for business or not. The building looked abandoned and neglected, but there were picnic tables out front, all overgrown, and lights on inside. Strange.
Of course the most notable property in
Wilmcote is Mary Arden’s House. Built early in the 16th century it remained
a working farm right up until 1930. Along with the white timbered buildings of
Palmer’s Farm, it forms part of the Shakespeare’s Trust.
Mary Arden’s House
At £22.50 each to visit, we decided not to bother.
Although the £22.50 ticket gains entry into a few other sites around Stratford
it is very expensive. We could see all around the buildings without paying the
entrance fee anyway. Such a shame that viewing a part of our heritage is
prohibitively expensive.
Weather: light rain turning heavier as the day
wore on. However, it was a nice enough afternoon.
Day Total: 4 locks; 4 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift
Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 3.1
Overall Total: 443 locks; 820 miles; 42 tunnels; 11 Swing Bridges; 3
Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 533.7
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