The next segment of our trip (from Kingswood Junction) takes us onto the Grand Union Canal. The canal meanders briefly through the Warwickshire parish of Shrewley before the descending rapidly through twenty one 14 foot wide locks of the Hatton flight to the Avon River valley and Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire. Then whilst still in Warwickshire we began climbing towards Napton - up a marvellous series of canal locks and lock flights - namely Bascote (includes a pair of staircase locks), Calcutt and the 15m high Stockton Lock flight of eight locks.
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| Stockton Top Lock |
This section was originally built by two separate companies, the Warwick & Napton Canal and the Warwick & Birmingham Canal. Both were designed for narrow boats and were completed in 1800. These two canals ultimately formed part of the amalgamated and renamed Grand Union Canal, comprising the Leicester Line the Regent’s Canal and the Grand Junction Canal.
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| Sunset at Calcutt Marina near Napton Junction |
From Napton Junction, the Grand Union Canal now briefly shares it's London bound passage with the older Oxford Canal until Braunston Turn. There are no canal locks along this shared stretch of water but there are quite a few canal bridges. These bridges show the Oxford Canal's numbering and naming system however they are also allocated bridge numbers in the Grand Union Canal's sequence although these are not displayed on the bridges themselves. To minimise confusion, the
Canal and River Trust refers to this section as part of the Grand Union Canal.
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| Grand Union Canal - Kingswood Junction to Braunston Junction |
The new Grand Union Canal company embarked on a large-scale modernisation programme, largely financed by government loans, with the aim of enabling broad-beamed (14 ft wide) boats to work between London and Birmingham. Long lengths were dredged and strengthened with concrete bank protection. Bridges were widened or replaced, and the narrow locks between Braunston and Birmingham were replaced with broad locks (the remains of most of the old locks could still be seen alongside their larger replacements).
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| Shrewley Canal Tunnel and separate Towpath Tunnel (Northwest portal) |
When the new state of the art locks at Hatton (known as the "stairway to heaven") were completed bands played and crowds gathered to watch Prince George, Duke of Kent arrive by boat and cut the ribbon. Today Hatton Locks is a lovely peaceful location to watch the colourful narrowboats as they move through the flight.
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| Hatton Locks (upper portion of flight) |
Steve, Anne, Cherice assisted the Skipper with lock duty down this flight while Angus took the tiller. We were very fortunate to meet a volunteer lock keeper part way down and he worked alongside us for the remainder of the flight. These were our first set of wide locks and we very happy to share the space and the operating of gates and sluices with fellow narrowboaters travelling in our direction. To add to the good fortune, every Hatton lock was set in our favour.
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| Hatton Top Lock |
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| Lockie Helen and the Skipper emptying a Hatton flight lock |
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| Slipping into a Hatton flight lock with a fellow narrowboater |
At the bottom of the Hatton flight are the conjoined towns of Warwick and Leamington Spa.
Warwick lies on the banks of the River Avon and has been the site of constant habitation since the 6th century. Warwick Castle was established here in 1068 as part of the Norman conquest of England.
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| Warwick Castle's Guy's Tower, Gate House, Dry Moat and external walls |
The castle developed into a stone fortress and then a country house and is today a popular tourist attraction.
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| Warwick Castle Mill and Avon River |
Nearby Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa is a spa town formerly known as Leamington Priors. Its expansion began the medicinal qualities of its water were discovered in 1784. During the 19th century, the town experienced one of the most rapid expansions in England. It's named after the River Leam which flows through the town.
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| Leamington Spa Royal Pump Rooms and Baths |
The spa waters had been known in Roman times and were rediscovered in 1784. With the spread of the town's popularity, and the granting of a 'Royal' prefix in 1838 by Queen Victoria, 'Leamington Priors' was renamed 'Royal Leamington Spa'. Queen Victoria had visited the town as a Princess in 1830 and as Queen in 1858.
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| Avon River from Warwick Castle Great Hall windows |
We visited Warwick Castle just prior to farewelling Anne and Steve. This medieval castle is a very well restored and maintained theme park and museum plus it is available for use as a private or corporate function centre. It's origins date back to an original wooden motte-and-bailey castle built by William the Conqueror in 1068.
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| Warwick Castle Courtyard |
The castle was extensively damaged by a fire in 1871 that started to the east of the Great Hall. Although the Great Hall was gutted, the overall structure was unharmed.
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| Mound and part of Castle Outer Wall |
Queen Victoria might be considered the start of tourism in 1858 however for a short time after this, tourists were considered by the Earl of Warwick as a nuisance and he closed the castle to visitors. It soon re-opened again and it's popularity continued to rise due in large part to the collection of armory on display - it is regarded as second only to that of the Tower of London.
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| Bowman demonstrating archery equipment and skills |
One of the highlights during our visit was a demonstration of one of the world's largest working siege engines. The Warwick Castle trebuchet is 18 metres tall, made from over 300 pieces of oak and weighs 22 tonnes.
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| Warwick Castle Trebuchet |
The trebuchet normally takes eight people half an hour to load and release however a little assistance from modern technology (a tractor) simplifies the loading process.
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| Having a wonderful time at the Castle |
On to our mooring for the evening (and time for Angus and Cherice to depart to catch the train from Rugby back to Leighton Buzzard) in the sleepy village of Braunston. On the way to Braunston we passed under Fosse Way - a Roman road that linked Exeter in South West to Lincoln in Lincolnshire, via Ilchester , Bath, Cirencester and Leicester. Fosse Way is remarkable for its extremely direct route: from Lincoln to Ilchester in Somerset, a distance of 293 km, it is never more than 10 km from a straight line.
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| Fosse Way near crossing over the Grand Union Canal |
Braunston lies at the crossroads of the Grand Union and Oxford canals as well as being at the heart of the entire English canal network.
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| Towpath Bridge on junction of Oxford and Grand Union Canals, Braunston |
The village, on the hill above the canal, thrived for over 150 years on the canal trade - carrying goods from the Midlands to London. Now it is a centre for leisure activities and boasts by far and away the busiest stretch of canal anywhere in the country.
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| Braunston Marina Towpath Bridge |
All Saints' Church Braunston (also known as the Cathedral of the Canals) has overlooked the village and the villagers for over 10 centuries and the canals and the boat people for over 300 years. All Saints has a rich history entwined with that of the canals. Many old boating families settled in Braunston when the use of the canals for haulage finally died in the 1950s and 60’s and many of the members of traditional working narrowboat families are buried in the grounds of the church.
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| All Saints' Church, Braunston |
Braunston hosts the hugely popular annual working narrowboats rally - the UK's largest! Well over 80 historic boats gather and take part in parades of surviving Braunston and Grand Union Canal boats.
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| Working Narrowboats Rally |
That's it for now. I will return with a concluding narrowboat post shortly before sharing some of our Myanmar adventure.
The Skipper.
