Wednesday 14th
August 2019
After the heavy, overnight rain, we waited until 10am before moving
off, after the rain had stopped. We passed a digger passing dredgings from a
barge into trailers, the dredgings then being spread on the neighbouring
fields, and the ominous looking satellite dishes of Whitehill Earth Station.
Coming towards us was a dumb barge loaded with the spoil from the
dredging operation, a stinking quagmire. Shortly after this we came to the
dredger itself, a digger sat on a maintenance barge scraping the bed of the
canal and loading it into another dumb barge. It must take some skill to
orchestrate this, with the digger controlling the position of the barge when
boats approach.
At Pigeon Lock, we were as close to Tackley as the canal reaches.
Tackley is a small Oxfordshire village that was the origin of the Hemmings
branch of my family. The River Cherwell closely accompanied the canal. The
canal gradually climbed out of a succession of tree lined cuttings, to open
countryside. While this opened out the views, it also left us vulnerable to the
gusting winds.
The railway had been closely following the route of the canal but
actually came alongside the canal below Heyford. Heyford Wharf was full of
boats and, while being narrow, was tricky to pass through.
We moored just beyond the wharf in the middle of a long line of boats.
Trees were overhanging the canal on both sides and made the interior of the
boat quite dark.
We walked through the village of Lower Heyford. A timeless place where
the ever present cars and wheelie bins seemed an intrusion. Had a pint in the
Bell, with its stone slabbed floors and wooden beamed ceilings, before
returning to the boat. On the way back we saw a punch bag on the towpath beside
a boat ….. odd.
Lower Heyford
Weather: Rain in the morning. An overcast day with breezy winds.
Day Total: 3 locks; 4 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 3 Lift Bridges;
0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 2.9
Overall Total: 676 locks; 1188 miles; 49 tunnels; 57 Swing Bridges; 9
Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total engine running hours 750.4hrs
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