The 50th Anniversary Trip - Day 6: Dog & Doublet to Atherstone

 Wednesday, 6th October 2021

Sunrise at the Dog & Doublet moorings

The early risers amongst the crew were rewarded by a spectacular sunrise as they prepared to untie and set off on another long day's run, with Atherstone as the target for the night.

Bloody Hire Boaters 

With seven of us onboard, some of whom had by now worked out how to use the shower, the first task was to take on water and this could be accomplished at Fazeley Junction.  The water point here is not ideally suited for boats coming from the south as it involves making the right turn on to the Coventry Canal and then reversing a boat length or two to reach it.  I had almost completed the turn and glanced behind before preparing to reverse when I saw a boat coming up behind. I pointed and shouted that I was headed for the water point, but the steerer kept coming, choosing to come between me and the towpath on my inside.  By the time I'd got the bow out of his way and he'd passed without a collision (or a word of thanks!) I was in a hopeless position for the water point, resulting in much manoeuvring with the engine and the shaft to get to it.

Whilst we were filling the tank a couple off a boat on the moorings came along and in response to my greeting, the lady said "I won't tell you what my husband has just said about typical hire boaters!"  As I doubt that they had seen the incident in its entirety it just goes to show that you shouldn't pass judgement without knowing the full story.

As Glascote Bottom Lock  I was reminded how much the cut has changed in the last fifty years, and how much less interesting it has become. On the 1973 boat trip my partner Hilary, who was on Willow Wren's "Guillemot", took this photo of Union Canal Carriers' "Bexhill", on which I was captain, leaving the lock.

Glascote Bottom Lock 1973

I wasn't really sure it was the same place when I took the 2021 photo, but the unusual roof line of the lock cottage is a giveaway...

and again, in 2021

After that it was a pleasant, but uneventful, day on the Coventry Canal.  Jeanette, who had been staying in holiday accommodation in Kenilworth whilst her husband Hugh was on the boat, joined us for the afternoon near Polesworth, having had some difficulty in parking her car in Atherstone due to road closures for a cycle race before walking back down the towpath to meet us.

Bloody Hire Boaters (again)

As we started up the Atherstone flight there was a minor incident with another boat at lock 6, which no doubt led its crew to roll their eyes and say "bloody hire-boaters" (although if they did they didn't let us see it).

Ken and Jeanette waiting for lock 6

Ken was holding Grebe perfectly in position waiting for the lock to empty. I suppose it might have been a clue if he had realised that two of the people leaning on the lock gates weren't part of our crew, but neither they nor Mark, who was one of us ,seems to have mentioned that there was a boat descending in the lock and which would need to come out before we could go in!  As a result, Ken's expert handling was all in vain...

Why didn't anyone tell me?

It wasn't as serious as the incident in 1973 when we arrived at the bottom of the flight when it was already dark, but decided to go up anyway. Approaching the top we were stopped by an irate lock-keeper who told us in no uncertain terms that we shouldn't have done it and that he would now have to walk back down the flight to check that all was in order after our passage. I did manage to deflect some of his ire by telling him that there was another boat - our companions on Guillemot - behind us in the hope that he would reserve some of his anger for them!

Back in 2021 there was then a debate about where we should stop for the night. The crew of a downhill boat had told us that the moorings above the top lock were choc-a-bloc. The alternative was to tie up lower down the flight, near the A5, although this would mean a much longer walk into the town that evening.  Pete went ahead to check the situation at the top, but in the meantime the rest of us decided that we would press on to the top anyway as the information we'd had from the other boat would be over an hour out of date and, rather optimistically, some boats may have moved on. Hugh was also leaving us at Atherstone and it would have been a long way for him to walk with his luggage, even if Jeanette could remember where she had been forced to abandon her car due to the cycle race.

The moorings above the lock were indeed full, but by asking nicely, Mark persuaded canal trader Kay on "Pea Green"  to move up to create a space long enough for Grebe just beyond the bridge and opposite the atmospheric remains of what was once Atherstone's largest hat factory.

Wilson & Stafford's Britannia Hat Works

Thank you, Kay, and in return here is a link to your website: Kay's Canal Crafty Arts.

The 50th Anniversary Trip - Day 5: Gas Street to the Dog & Doublet

 Tuesday, 5th October 2021

The road ahead from Gas Street and a threatening sky.

Spike was up and about early this morning, managing to catch the cleaners at work in the Tap & Spile and retrieving his waterproof left there last night.  As Hugh had also managed to find his missing wallet we were good to go shortly before 09.00. Mark was on the tiller at Old Turn for the slightly awkward turn towards Farmer's Bridge locks, again managing not to actually hit but needing a bit of shunting, so he got A for technical ability but only a B for style.

We were met at the top lock by a volunteer lockie, who asked us to tie up as we would be waiting a while for the flight to be re-filled after having been drained by persons unknown overnight. The delay turned out to be shorter than promised and we were away after about thirty minutes.  Despite us being mob-handed as far as crew was concerned the lockie attached himself to us for the journey down, when I thought he would have been better employed helping the couple ahead of us, who had just bought their boat and were still getting used to it.

At one of the more awkward lock entries in the middle of the flight, where the lock chambers are close together but slightly offset,I saw him using a foot to push our bow away from the lock wall. When I jokingly asked him whether he had done a risk assessment on that manoeuvre I was told in no uncertain terms that he was a "retired health and safety professional" and knew what he was doing, thank you very much.

Graffiti everywhere in Brum

 The canals in Birmingham, as with most urban areas, have always been plagued with graffiti, but the situation seems to have got much worse since I was last there, with almost a continuous tide stretching from Farmers Bridge to the edge of the urban area. Some see it as "street art", but to me it's just boring scribbling.

The locky's beat only extended to the Farmer's Bridge locks and no assistance was on offer for the following Aston flight. I went on ahead to set the locks for the couple in the boat in front and met this ex-working boat coming up, amidst yet more scribbles.

Put that light out!

I took over the steering as we approached Salford Junction and quickly noticed that the ignition light was glowing bright red, something that previous steerers had either not noticed or chosen not to comment on! The previous trick of revving the engine failed to extinguish it and a glance at the gauges showed that the domestic batteries were not being charged.

A phone call to Willow Wren quickly followed (one of the advantages of being a hirer is that things like this are someone else's problem) and after dutifully trying revving the engine again they agreed to send an engineer out. The person concerned had just left for another call out, so we agreed that he would meet us at the Dog & Doublet, which was where we intended to stop for the night.

Locky with a grudge?

We had a problem at the second of the Curdworth locks when having emptied the chamber we couldn't fully open the gate to get Grebe out. When raking and poking about with the shaft failed to find any obvious obstruction we re-filled the chamber and emptied it again, although we had to do it twice before the gate would open all the way.  This meant that the boat we had been following down Farmer's Bridge, but which having stopped for lunch was now following us, caught us up.  They said they were surprised to see us as the locky at Farmer's Bridge had told them we would be stopping at Minworth and had suggested that they did too.  That locky had asked us where we intended to stop and having been told the Dog & Doublet, had advised us very strongly against it, saying that after a change of landlord it had gone downhill fast and was now a "very rough" place and to be avoided! He had indeed "advised" us that the pub at Minworth has a much better bet.

I'm always wary of the advice of strangers when it comes to pubs and we had decided to ignore it in this case. In the event those who went to the Dog & Doublet pronounced it excellent, having received a warm welcome from the landlady and enjoyed excellent beer and food, after which they felt compelled to tell her of the warning we had received and where it came from.

I say, "those who went to the pub" because when the engineer arrived he diagnosed a failed alternator and consequently fitted a new one. By the time he'd finished it was after seven o' clock and he advised us to run the engine for at least a couple of hours given that it had not been charging the batteries all day.  As I was still in recovery mode from the "cold from hell" I offered to stay with the boat when the rest went to the pub and as they apparently enjoyed some tasty Thai cuisine I also enjoyed one of the emergency tins of Irish Stew accompanied by some instant mash which was on board for emergency use and was just the sort of comfort food my condition required!

The other item of interest at Curdworth was crossing the line of the HS2 railway, on which construction has started. The following image of HS2 is widely used by the media when reporting on the project

I'd always suspected this was meant to be at Curdworth locks and I think the following image, albeit taken from a different angle and with evidence of the work site on the right, confirms it.

The 50th Anniversary Trip - Day 4: Lapworth to Gas Street

 Monday, 4th October 2021

Most hire-boat trips are necessarily relentless affairs and a one-week transit of the Warwickshire Ring is no exception, so we were due an early start from Lapworth. Despite all the crew having been hire-boating for many years it still surprised me that detailed knowledge of the canal system could be a little lacking at times. Admittedly, the geography and history of the junction at Lapworth is complicated and bound up in canal company politics, but I was a little surprised when Pete announced that he had set lock 21 ready for the off, whereas our obvious route would be via lock 20. The following illustration might explain.

Lapworth, as explained by the Canal & Rivers Trust. Which way would you go?

Having got underway, the rest of the ascent of the Lapworth flight was uneventful and, with a large crew, very easy.  Pete was keen to replace the missing washer on the hosepipe connector  so he persuaded us to call in at the Earlswood Motor Yacht Club, where not entirely to my surprise they announced that they did not have such a thing and had no idea where one might be obtained!  Perhaps if we had been on a "motor yacht" rather than a hire boat things might have been different? 

There then followed the straightforward passage of the northern Stratford Canal, interrupted only briefly by the electrified lift bridge at Shirley, where we suffered a slight delay when the crew member sent ahead to open it wandered off on the wrong side of the cut to find the control box!  There was also a slight contretemps between the steerer (me) and one of the crew who insisted that we had to tie up here to wait for the bridge, because the notice said so!

Now where's he gone?

After a fine sunny day yesterday, the rain returned in the afternoon, but despite it being particularly heavy at the time we stopped at Yardley Wood for water, on the basis that we had only taken on half a tank at the Cape the previous day.

Taking water at Yardley Wood

The connector was still leaking badly, but somehow we didn't feel the need to worry about getting the towpath wet. With the tank now refilled I took over the steering again and noticed that the ignition light didn't go off immediately we got underway, which I thought strange. However, a few revs on the engine quickly extinguished it and I thought no more about it.

Mark had bagged the steering for the awkward turn onto the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at King's Norton, which is much tighter than it initially looks and quickly leaves you with very few options if you misjudge it. Like many, he started the turn too soon and then failed to give it enough welly, but he did get round and under the bridge with only a few shunts and without hitting anything, so I gave him a B+, upgraded to A - on appeal!

Lost Property Aplenty

After an initial attempt to tie up opposite the Mailbox in central Brum was abandoned due to the downdraught from the surrounding buildings blowing the boat away from the bank we headed around Salvage Turn and tied up near the Tap & Spile, where we went for an evening meal.  The food was good, but the beer range was a bit restrictive for our party - and very similar to that in the previous two night's pubs - so I offered to lead us to the Wellington on Bennetts Hill, which has more than a dozen beers to choose from, and to which the quickest way was through the Convention Centre and Symphony Hall complex.

After we were settled in the Wellington, Spike began agitating for a return to the Tap & Spile, on the grounds that he had left his waterproof jacket there. This was rejected on the grounds that it was now raining heavily! Unfortunately for Spike it was still raining heavily at closing time, even more so as by now, with the route through the Convention Centre being closed, we had to follow the tram tracks from Victoria Square to Broad Street. This went well until we reached Paradise Circus where the pavement stops and "No Pedestrians" signs appear as the slip road from the Inner Ring Road crosses the tracks. Fortunately traffic was light, so we carried on walking until, eventually, we were able to get off the road - and the tram tracks - and back to Gas Street.  

The Tap & Spile was closed and locked-up for night, so no hope of retrieving Spike's coat and when we got back on board, Hugh announced he had lost his wallet - probably in the Wellington!  No one was in the mood for another wet walk and a phone call to the pub elicited the advice that they were too busy to look for it, but would do so in the morning!  Hugh then announced that he had now found his wallet - in a pocket of his new coat that he didn't know existed!