Sunday 4^th August 2019

We left the lovely mooring where we had such a good time and headed for nearby Newbury. Within a mile, we passed below the A34 Newbury by-pass, before entering the town itself at West Fields.

Numerous people had warned against mooring in Newbury and so we did not plan to moor there with the kids on board. Normally we take little notice of such warnings, make our own mind up and apply the “graffiti” rule. If there is graffiti, as opposed to urban art, or rubbish, in an area, we tend not to stop. If you listened to stories against mooring in a certain place, you would never go anywhere on our canal system and perhaps never embark on this life at all.

While the east side of Newbury was pretty grotty, the part through West Mills and up to Greenham Lock looked absolutely safe and delightful, with lots of moored boats. We felt robbed not to be stopping. However, the time with the kids on board is about them, and they much prefer the countryside, but we will be returning at some point.

West Mills was particularly attractive, with terraces of very old cottages, a lovely looking church and a gorgeous looking mill above the lock. The swing bridge was not very kind to Brenda. It was automatic, operated by push buttons. While it opened, it would not close and kept sticking, having to be opened again, and then attempted to reclose. With more and more traffic waiting to cross, it was a bit embarrassing but eventually, to the relief of all, it did close.

    

Newbury

Newbury Lock was very picturesque although a challenging bit of waterway followed immediately, with the canal being joined on one side by the river, and on the other by the mill sluice. The channel becomes very narrow and fast and there was quite a bit of turbulence to be negotiated. We then passed directly through the centre of Newbury, determined to return.

Just after Greenham Lock, we moored against the very overgrown bank. Brenda went shopping with the kids at the big Tesco’s beside the canal, while I stayed with the boat. The area felt a little threatening. It was very amusing to watch Brenda coming down the towpath with a Tesco trolley loaded with goods, expecting the trolley to stop dead at any time, having passed outside the car park.

Stuart and Debbie, who we had met previously, passed while we were packing the shopping away, and they waited at the next lock for us.

There then followed a further four locks, in company with Stuart and Debbie, before we moored at Thatcham to await the angling centre on Monday morning. The navigation out of Newbury is picturesque and isolated, being surrounded by water meadows and flooded gravel pits. It was also now a river navigation, one of the earliest of the canal era, being built between 1718 and 1723. The river continued to flow in and out of the navigation, and at times, the path of the river was quite convoluted. There were a number of interesting features remaining from the original river navigation. At Dreweat’s Lock were the remains of a “peg and bar” sluice. The canal lengthsman would insert a bar into a hole of the paddle stem, lever it up, and insert a peg to hold it in place to allow water to flow out of the canal to maintain the level. The level is now controlled by a tilting weir, a metal plate that can be rotated to allow more or less water to flow. However, the brick structure of the peg and bar sluice has been restored and left in place. 

All the locks between Newbury and Reading were originally” turf locks”. They were an early form of pound lock that were constructed with vertical timber sides in the lower chamber and sloping turf sides above the water. While most have now been converted to standard lock design, there are two remnants at Monkey Marsh Lock at Thatcham and Garston Lock at Theale. The converted locks are easily identifiable by their sheer size and the shape of the side walls which are either lined with steel piling or have scalloped shaped brick walls.  

The straight run of river before Thatcham was very narrow because of overgrown reed beds and we had to literally push our way through. We then came to the turf lock at Monkey Marsh, a fascinating structure but difficult to negotiate because of the turf sides and lack of access on and off the boat. Little wonder they fell out of favour.

Monkey Marsh “Turf” Lock

Below Monkey Marsh, the river narrowed and consequently, the flow increased considerably. There was a free mooring but, because of the flow, we overshot it slightly, having to go into reverse. A small drama then ensued. Selecting reverse, nothing happened although the propeller was turning but was clearly fouled. We were being swept further from the mooring. A burst of forward power did little to free the obstruction. A lot of power, and plenty of smoke coming from the exhaust, did manage to bring the boat to the mooring but it was a close call.

We had wanted to eat out and there was a Hungry Horse type eatery, the Swan, across the railway from the mooring. We all had quite a bit of anticipation of a Sunday roast, but were severely disappointed. There were boards everywhere advertising curry nights, fish nights etc, and Sunday dinners at £12 for 2. Just what we needed, only to be told they had no chef and the menu actually consisted of ham and eggs or sandwiches. Not only that, but the kids coke were both flat. We complained about this and were given fresh drinks, only to find these flat also, and the staff could not have been more disinterested in us.

The next eatery was up in the town about 1 mile away, so Brenda finished up making a very nice pasta dish with chorizo, cheese sauce and broccoli.

Weather: hot and sunny again.

Day Total: 9 locks; 6 miles; 0 Tunnels; 2 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 6.2

Overall Total: 637 locks; 1121 miles; 49 tunnels; 49 Swing Bridges; 5 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 715.0hrs