Narrow locks at last!

Thursday 21^st August; Shrewley tunnel to Hockley Heath

After breakfast I walked back to Shrewley tunnel and through the horse tunnel to go to the shop in the village above, so it was nearly 10 before we were ready to leave.  It was cool enough for me to wear long trousers, though I did change into shorts before Kingswood Junction.  I even had time to make and drink a strategic pot of strong coffee, to give me at least the illusion of energy to get us up Lapworth locks.

How are they finding anything to eat?

We needed water.  There are two taps on the North Stratford, which we were about to join; one at the facilities block above the first lock going down, and the other a couple of locks further up the flight.  I peeped through the trees and could just see a boat on the services mooring, so we didn’t go through the narrow Lapworth Link, the shortcut if you are going south, instead going up lock 20 which avoids the tight turn to the alternative lock.

First narrow lock of this trip

As I filled the next lock, the two volunteers who helped us on the Hatton flight appeared.  Connor is autistic and learning disabled, as he freely tells you, and Bill acts as his partner and helps with any difficulties in communication – some people will not engage with Connor or find him hard to relate to.  He certainly knows his stuff around locks.  Unlike yesterday, when he spent most of our chats worrying about the state of the canals and climate change, today we got onto the subject of differing lock gear, broad and narrow locks and where he has been on his canal-boat holidays, not to mention the improvements he would like to see made.  He knows a lot about the canals!

After a few more locks there is a long pound with good moorings, and as we wanted to have lunch before we tackled the rest of the flight we pulled in, and Connor and Bill went to help the boat which had appeared behind us.

Lock 14 is the first of the rest – 13 more to go

It was pleasantly warm, not too hot, as we climbed the rest of the flight.  When we saw Bill and Connor a while later, they were on their way back to the CRT buildings for their lunch break and we didn’t see them again.

This flight has the waterfall-type bywash overflows

I was still tired from coming up the Hatton flight yesterday, and much of the paddle gear was equally heavy, or even worse.  But at only 4 turns of the windlass rather than 21 I wasn’t complaining!

Flowers provided a distraction from the work – this is flowering rush, Butomus umbellatus

Arrowhead, Sagittaria sagittifolia

After lock 6 there is a gap before the next lock, so weary crew can have a rest, but the pound below it is short and curved.  We were once coming down, many years ago, when a 70-footer was coming up.  Fortunately they were old hands (at the time we definitely weren’t) and knew exactly where both boats should be positioned to avoid either getting grounded.  But this time there was no-one else around.

Not only does lock 6 have the attractive split bridge characteristic of the Stratford canal, it also has a ‘cotton-reel’ device on the rail to help get a towrope across the canal where the towpath changes sides.

I got back on the boat after lock 6, and with a bit of a rest (and some chocolate) was fit enough to do the remaining 4 locks, which are in 2 pairs of 2.  At the first pair is a cricket field, suffering in the drought (though the crease looks as though it has been watered).

At last we reached Lapworth Top Lock.  An American gentleman used to live in the cottage alongside with his wife, always neatly dressed and he used to come out and help.  When his wife died many years ago he moved down to the village, and we used to see him taking his daily stroll along the flight, aways happy to chat to boaters.  But he was getting on in years and we knew he was ill, and he takes those strolls no longer.

Lapworth Top Lock

Above the lock was a sizeable length of branch, sodden and half submerged, clearly from a tree that had come down a while ago.  Two larger logs had been secured on the offside with rope, but although I could push this one out of the way with the boat-hook it would be far too heavy for us to drag out.  We have been jammed in a lock by a waterlogged chunk of timber before, so I rang CRT to report it.  We wanted to get on further today, so continued through the two lift bridges that follow the lock flight.  The first was fairly easy, and so was the second although we ran over some obstacle in the middle of the channel just before it and ground to a halt.  We were very lucky that two brawny chaps were on their way to the pub and were willing to take the rope I threw them.  They got us closer to the towpath so Dave could get off, and it took all three of them to drag us clear.  That got reported to CRT as well, though as a hire boat passed us once we were moored at Hockley Heath our passage had probably moved it out of the way and they had had no trouble.

19 locks, 2 lift bridges, 5 miles, 1 grounding, 1 crew member looking forward to a day without locking tomorrow.