Banbury to Thrupp

Banbury to Thrupp

June 2019

Monday

We finished our stay in Banbury with a trip to the town's Odeon Cinema, which offers two screen entertainment. I have heard that the new development at Spiceball Park will include a multiplex, so I guess that will be the death knell for the old style cinema near the Cross.

Anyway, we went to see Rocketman, a biopic of Elton John, who's music featured quite prominently in my youth. In terms of production and insight it stands above Bohemian Rhapsody, and his ability to write music is nothing short of staggering. That said, I marginally preferred Bohemian Rhapsody, but that is because Queen really did represent the soundtrack to me teenage years.

Our departure from Banbury was a staggered affair, with trips to the bank and the mobile phone shop plus a visit to Tooleys to pick up some flyers, all fitted in before we set off. No sooner had we left Banbury Lock than the heavens opened and soaked me as I moved on to the moorings near Morrisons.

This was never going to be a long day with just seven miles to cover on our way to Aynho, zig zagging back and forth under the M40. Its on this stretch that you pick up the rail track which carries a massive volume of container traffic and these rumbling convoys are never really out of earshot all the way to Oxford. In the end so we moored just above Aynho Wharf where the freight and passenger trains cross on box girder bridge, but luckily the noise was tolerable. 

Tuesday

The reason we needed to moor above Aynho was because we needed to refill with diesel. We last filled at Hawne in Halesowen about two cruising weeks ago, and the tank will have been down to two thirds full (I don't often bother to check with the dipstick because you get a feel for consumption rates). That may sound like a lot left in the tank, but we have a long trip down the Thames ahead of us and you never want to pay Thames prices for fuel if you don't have to. As it was the price per litre was 95p - about 30p more than Hawne. The price rises as you go south.

For some reason we have made fewer towpath sales as we travel this year, but as we worked through Somerton Deep Lock a Dutch party decided to buy some preserves to take home. Of course, boats were approaching from both directions so the transaction had to be swift and concluded before the butty sank too far in the chamber!

We had been slowing our progress because we had agreed to meet Bones for the evening at Lower Hayford. Rather stupidly I had forgotten to find out exactly where her boat was and decided to cruise on and stop after I found it. Bad Mistake. No sooner had I passed the vacant visitor moorings (in a downpour) than I passed her boat after which there were no viable mooring spots. I tried one rather close to a bridge, but after the first boat to pass bumped us I moved on and ended up half a mile away. Getting back involved a long and squelchy walk.

Wednesday

Another easy day of about seven miles covering attractive ground with the Cherwell running close to the canal. After the rush to the Wormleighton summit all these half days feel like a holiday.

Our destination is Thrupp, a sleepy village just north of Oxford with two pubs and a tea room. It's a popular spot for boaters with its own rather complex set of mooring restrictions. These moorings are monitored daily by a warden from Thrupp Cruising Club, so it's important to get the right spot. As it turned out, both Maffii and Ken were about as we approached the lift bridge and opened it for us, laughing at my failure to correctly anticipate the amount of butty assistance I would get as I turned the 90 degree angle. 

The aim was to moor on the 7 day section and much to our delight there were a couple of full length spots available, mid way between the bridge and The Boat pub.

The evening was spent nursing a pint or two in the Boat and catching up on boating gossip from far and wide.

Thursday

A non moving day and we decided to take the S4 bus into Oxford, fitting in a visit to the Ashmolean and the department stores. Helen was successful in Debenhams but frustratingly they had none of the trousers I liked in my size. We spent a few pleasant hours pottering around and visited the Green Cafe, perusing their impressive poster wall. I was particularly amused by the way the Old Time Revival Tent rally organised by Oxford Baptist Church rubbed shoulders with an advert for a Cannabis Cake making course!

The day finished with yours truly doing a spot of paint repair work on Wand'ring Bark. The problem seems to be that paint just does not want to stick to the welds attaching the cabin to the gunwhale. The original paint sticks ok, but the "new" paint comes off after about four years and then water starts to creep under the non stick surface and lift it up. So my task was to address the towpath side, sanding off the flaky bits and applying both undercoat and top coat with a small flat artists brush. The sight of me paining a huge boat with a tiny brush raised more than a few eyebrows (and comments) from dog walkers passing by.

Looking more closely at he paint I can see that the cabin will need attention before next season, particularly the roof where the paint is starting to flake. I will put that in the diary for early April.

The Canal of the Pharaohs

The Canal of the Pharaohs
June 2019

I visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford today, mainly to take a look at a very ancient ceremonial mace head, which depicts a ruler known as King Scorpion (on account of a scorpion near his head) formally opening what appears to be an irrigation canal.

King Scorpion opens a canal in ancient Egypt

The reason for my sudden interest in ancient Egypt is some research I have been undertaking looking into the various ages or phases of canal building, and it soon became apparent that canal building goes back to the dawn of civilisation. There is a fine line between irrigation canals and those which are navigable, but the ancient records of the Pharahos indicates that they were avid navigable canal builders. 

Map of the Nile / Gulf of Suez area

First they constructed canals round the cataracts on the Nile, sections which are shallow and fast flowing. These will have been short lived water shoots but we soon find records of huge irrigation projects, taking excess water off the Nile when in flood to store in vast artificial lakes and feed huge networks of irrigation channels in the Nile Delta. The administration of this complex system of water management involved an army of administrators who occupied a massive complex known as the Labarynth. These canals were so numerous and interconnected that they became the sole means of transport in the region.

Satellite image which highlights the east west route of Wadi Tumilat

But these are not the canals which really grabbed my attention. The ones which I have found so interesting are the routes which were built through the Wadi Tumilat and in so doing connected the Nile near what is now Cairo to the Red Sea, and from there to their trading partners in India. There is a Killers song "Spaceman" which refers to the Nile flowing from east to west, but it's certainly true that at least a portion of the Nile used to flow west to east. 

The records suggest that 4000 years ago Pharaoh Senwasret II at least started to build this canal which followed the route of an ancient dried up distributory of the Nile east to the Bitter Lakes, which were at that time tidally connected to the Red Sea. Its believed he gave the project up not because he couldn't do it, but because his advisors believed that the Red Sea was higher than the Nile and that if dug it the salt water would flood into the breadbasket of the Egyptian civilisation and poison their fertile lands.

One of the stones commemorating the opening of the Darius canal

This view persisted till Persian King Darius (who probably wasn't so worried about the fertility of Egypt) dug the canal in 454 BC. This accomplishment is evidenced by a number of "proclamation stones" found along its route which, in four languages, declared the glory of his achievement. This was a seasonal canal which was flooded with surplus Nile water when the water level was high enough, and it only remained in water till the river levels dropped.

The problem with canal building in the area is that sand gets blown into the channel and in time it was lost. The waterway was re-dug by Ptolomy II in 285 BC and it is recorded that the passage to the Red Sea took 4 days, which is about right for a waterway 60 miles long. The next version was built by Roman Emperor Trajan in about AD100, but by the time he constructed the canal the Greeks had developed flood gates which he built across the mouth of the Canal, and possibly higher up, raising its level, slowing the outflow and extending the navigation season.

These ancient links between the Nile and the Red Sea all succumbed to the advances of the sand and so the connection lapsed, this time for nearly 2000 years. 

In 1869 the Suez Canal was cut linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, this time as a ship canal on a route due south from Port Said to the Bitter Lakes where it joins the line of the ancient canals and it was during its construction that fragment of the old waterways were unearthed.

Brindley may have kick started the British Canals in the late 1700's, but I think it's fair to say he stood on the shoulders of some heavyweight engineers going back literally thousands of years.

And so to Banbury

Warwick to Banbury

June 2019

I have been slipping with my blog posts a bit recently, but that is mainly because we have been on the move and I have spent a fair bit of my writing time working on a couple of articles for publication.

 Riding at Banbury Cross

I have to admit that I really like the Grand Union between Knowle and Wigrams Turn. The canal is broad, deep (ish) and relatively little used. The one snag to the route is the locks - they are all the big wide locks which were installed in the 1930's replacing the narrow ones which still stand empty and folorn. There are times then the heavy gates and heavy paddles are a bit much and I wish that the little locks were still operational.

Actually, there is a second snag to the route - Elsans, or the lack of them! There is one on the Saltisford Arm, but is it was a bit of a walk I relied on the one on the offside, three locks up at Fosse Road Bridge. We arrived only to discover it is deliberately out of service, filled with sand by CRT because of risks to the staff who have to empty the cess pit. I am guessing that they have to park the tanker on the very busy road, and this is clearly risky. But that means that there are no canalside elsans from Hatton top lock to Napton bottom. Frankly, if this facility is removed I cant see why a couple of temporary "cubes" cant be provided in all the lockside space at Bascote.

HS1 route

Anyway, off we went up Stockton Brook where we paused to pick up another boat so the rise up the hill was very painless and instead of stopping at Calcutt, we went all the way up the Napton Flight and moored for the night somewhere way out on the Wormlington Summit above Marston Doles.

It turned out that we moored on the edge of the area marked out for the new High Speed Rail track. The adjacent meadows were covered in posts with streamers attached, presumably to scare nesting birds. I was a bit shocked by the area staked off and wondered if this was some sort of construction marshalling yard rather than just the track bed itself. I guess that this will be the last time we can enjoy the other worldliness of the summit and in future it will be earth movers or screaming trains.

We had friends heading north on the Oxford and we had been maintaining daily contact to see where we would pass. It became apparent that we would meet at Fenny Compton so we both stopped and had a long awaited cup of coffee together. I love the way these meetings happen on the cut. Then it was on down the hill through Cropredy where we spent the night.

Now we have crossed onto the Thames catchment basin our progress has slowed. We have shelved our plans for the K&A this year (again) and will instead make a leisurely trip down the Thames and back up the GU. But before we get to the river there was Banbury, the only significant town between Leamington Spa and Oxford. Our grandchildren love singing "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross" so Helen made a couple of hobby horses which we presented to them.... at Banbury Cross. They loved them and galloped around the Fair Lady for about 15 mins before raising lots of smiles as they cantered back to the boat at Castle Quays.

Now previously Banbury has been rather a good trading spot for us, but not this time. Banbury is in the throes of a make over spanning the multi storey car park and Spiceball Park. As a result the middle foot bridge is closed and there are few people using the towpath. What we lost to trade was made up for with two peaceful nights in what can be a noisy mooring. 

Heading south again

Heading south again
May 2019

We seem to have been going round in circles so far this season.

Leo's back cabin

The sum total progress after one month afloat has seen us return to exactly where we started at Longwood. First there was the hurly burly of St Richards festival in Droitwich followed by the Coombswood open weekend at Halesowen and then to round it off we attended the BCNS Brownhills Canal Rally, after which we were pretty much out of stock.

CRT's Leo

We therefore returned and replenished the hold of The Jam Butty with the addition of about 1500 jars of preserve, and once again we headed south.

Day one

Our reloading and departure was on the weekend of the BCN Challenge so the reloading process turned out to be one of constant interruptions as competitor after competitor crawled past and greetings were exchanged. In the end we set off at 9.00 am on the Sunday, taking the less travelled eastern route to the Grand Union. 

Busy on the Moshes

The sequence of locks is engrained in my head in the shape of the old boatmans ditty "The Moshes two, the Ganzies seven, the New thirteen and the Lousy Leven."

Because the Rushall Flight had been well used over the weekend we had plenty of water to see us through the usually dry pounds at the bottom of the Ganzies, but all the chopped weed was a bit of a pain. The Perry Barr flight (new 13) was painless bar the dozen motorcycles roaring up the towpath and we soon found ourselves in the strange netherworld under Spaghetti Junction.

Butty's at Brownhills

We then used the Saltley Cut which is a stretch of canal I rarely travel and the oily odours from the silt at the bottom lock reminded me of the same smells when I travelled this way over 50 years ago with my parents. Our solitary progress was broken on Camp Hill where we met our first hire boats doing the Warwick Ring.

After 10 hours on the move we stopped at Camp Hill services, tucked into the arm behind the toilet block. This is a very secure location and we made use of the very comprehensive service block which would do justice to a better travelled route. It was Gay Pride weekend in Birmingham so our stay had a musical soundtrack courtesy of the main stage in Hurst Street.

Day Two

I was off with the larks on Monday morning, leaving my crew of two asleep in bed. The canal is good and deep through Tyseley and Ackers but the water channel shallowed off at Acocks Green. Every bridge seemed to be silted up and I was never really clear of debris on the prop. Rather disturbingly, the Knowle pound was a good 10 inches down and this will probably be a problem all season.

Knowle Locks are something of a nemesis for me. When descending the short square pounds seem to acquire a sharply rotating current which grabs the motor before the butty is clear of the lock. The end result was, as usual, a complete mess. The bows were swept past the lock mouth and I was left with the option of either doing 360 degrees or being roped into the rock in a most undignified way. On this occasion we opted for ropes.

The  afternoon was dominated with the Aston Villa -Derby match being played at Wembley  and the miles streamed past as I listened to the radio commentary. Aston Villa won the  day  and made their way back to the Premiership as we arrived at the moorings at the top of Hatton Locks. 

Day Three

As Dan had come with us from Longwood, we made use of his muscles to get us down the heavy going Hatton Flight. Progress was erratic and we had a series of waits for ascending boats and an equal number of squally rain showers. That said they passed, as they do, and we moored at the Cape of Good Hope where a downed some very acceptable pints and set Dan on his way back to Birmingham from Warwick Parkway. 

Hatton Locks

After three full on days we decided to stay put for the night and were later joined by Pam and Andy from the Glass Barge, who are also heading south.

We are now down to just the two of us and we are making for Banbury and then Thrupp, where we paused two years ago. Then it's a few weeks on the Thames and on to London.

Brownhills Canal Festival 2019

Brownhills Canal Festival

May 2019

Brownhills is an old ex mining town which sits on the A5 near Cannock and crucially, sits next the Wyrley and Essington Canal on the extreme northern edge of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. It also happens so be about three miles from our home in Aldridge, so its a place we know well.

The canal at Silver Street, Brownhills

Given its status of "capital of the Northern Reaches" it periodically hosts canal events, and this year the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society (BCNS) decided to hold a rally in the extensive moorings in the centre of town. Now this has to be one of the more tricky locations to reach, taking either one day through loads of locks of nearly two days on the flat via Wolverhampton, so no one was sure how many boats would make the long trek. 

Working Boats and Day Boats (Joeys)

Brownhills has historically held a one day canal side event each year, but the organisers ran out of steam a few years ago. One year the Historic Boat Club held an easter rally here, but last year was fallow and the broad expanse of water beside Silver Street saw few visitors.

Skippers polish their boats for the crowds

In the event nearly 40 visiting boats arrived plus a clutch of historic boats and unpowered day boats, plus four trade boats. Against this backdrop the land based pitches were sold out months ago and the organisers crossed their fingers that crowds would turn out to see the spectacle.

Visiting boats line all the towpath

The good people of Brownhills love their canal and there is nothing they like better than to see it jam packed with boats. As the visiting boats trickled in on Thursday and Friday more and more locals came to the waterfront with their cameras to stand and watch as boat after boat chugged up and found somewhere to moor. This trickle turned into something of a flood on Saturday with the towpath thronging with visitors, Phoenix, the BCNS work / trip boat full to the limit on each of its short runs up and down the waterfront and even the ever hungry armada of Canada Geese retired, sated by an onslaught of duck food offered by enthusiastic children.

  Governor looking splendid

And Morgana putting on her best face for the event

The site does have one disadvantage, a lack of space for a marquee and bar. But on the flip side, there is a large community centre a few hundred yards away, so entertainment and lubrication is offered just off site.

... and these guys are there selling their preserves

The event runs for two days so if you missed the Saturday jollifications there is still time to pop along on Sunday.