Cropredy with Alice Cooper & 10cc

Our next target was to get to Cropredy in Oxfordshire for the annual Fairport Convention festival on the weekend of 8/9/10 August.  This entailed going back to Braunston via the Coventry and Oxford canals, along the Grand Union to Napton junction and then south back down the Oxford to Cropredy.  A total of 51 miles and 22 locks.

 
Here we are setting off from Crick:

 
My dad came down from Yorkshire to join us in Braunston for a couple of days and Polly (my youngest) and Chris (my eldest) came up as well.  My dad (at 86!) was really keen to have a go in our kayak - here he is with Polly:

 

We stayed at Napton for a week or two at the end of July:

 
We stopped at Claydon top lock for the last night before the final cruise to Cropredy.  A gorgeous morning it was too:

 
We made it to Cropredy a couple of days before the festival and decided to moor about a mile away from the festival site in the village.

 
And this was our evening view:

 
We used the kayak to get to and from the festival site.  Alice Cooper and 10cc were the highlights on Thursday and Friday and we didn’t even bother going to see Fairport Convention on the final night.  The two village pubs had their own fringe festivals which were more exciting to be honest.

Sent to Coventry

After the Crick boat show we thought we should visit Coventry.  This involved going back down the Leicester line to Norton junction to join the Grand Union.  Then head west through Braunston and rejoin the Oxford canal at Braunston turn.  Then head north to the end of the Oxford canal when it meets the Coventry canal at Hawkesbury junction.  Not too many locks - 17 over the 37 mile journey.

Take away in a pub

When we were locking down the Braunston flight our friends Cheryl and Stuart from Leicester came and joined us.  In the evening we all went to the Admiral Nelson and also met up with Dave and Barbara and their friends; they were mooring overnight at the pub on their trek back to Cheshire.  We all fancied eating in the pub but it was closed for food on Mondays so they let us order in a Chinese takeaway!

Willoughby

We stayed for a while at Willoughby where we found a good pub with a pleasant walk across the fields from the canal.

We also took the opportunity to install a new cooker as the previous one had done its duty during the 15 years the boat was a hire boat! This is the old one out…

…and the new one being wheeled along the tow path and nearly installed. Had to have a cuppa first to make sure all was working before completing the installation.

We went through Rugby which has some short tunnels with towpaths;

Whilst filling up with water at Hillmorton this large family swam past which rather reminded us of our large brood!

The final seven locks on the Oxford included six that were doubled up (i.e. in pairs) to take the increased volume of traffic in the 19th century.

Stuart and Cheryl came and joined us again at Hillmorton but unfortunately did not get another cruise.  There was a leak in the gas cooker pipe so Stuart and I spent the afternoon tracking down, getting and fitting a replacement.  Still, Stuart and Karen cooked a lovely meal that evening.

Hawkesbury junction is quite pretty considering we were between Rugby and Coventry.

On the way down the Coventry canal we passed the Coventry football stadium and these rather fine weavers’ cottages.

The basin itself was quite pleasant but the area outside was really rough.  The bridge at the entrance to the basin is reputedly the smallest on the canal system; there was no towpath and shutters used to be pulled down at night to secure the basin in the old days. We wandered into the city on Saturday evening but felt rather out of our comfort zones so soon scuttled back to the boat.  The basin has been renovated but unfortunately the retail units were tattoo parlours and greasy spoons rather than cafes, bars and shops as in places like Birmingham:

Napton to Crick

Napton junction

When the Oxford canal reaches Napton junction it becomes the Grand Union canal until it reaches Braunston Turn when it then heads north again towards Coventry.

The rest of our trip to Crick took in the Grand Union from Napton, through Braunston to Norton junction where we turned north up the Leicester Line - 16 miles and 13 locks.

Here is a view of the hill and windmill of Napton-on-the-Hill.

We moored just before Braunston turn and had our first barbeque of the year!

Braunston turn

All junctions seem to become famous or infamous, usually because they are where two different canals meet.  Each canal would be run by different companies both vying for the tolls of the passing freight traffic so toll houses are often still seen. 

Braunston

We spent a few days in Braunston; a pretty Northamptonshire village. One day we caught a couple of buses back to Banbury to pick up the car.  We love the country buses; the only people who use them are those with bus passes and everyone knows each other and the bus driver.

Braunston church has a separate graveyard for boatmen’s families.  Braunston used to be one of the busiest places on the canal network for freight traffic.  Indeed, it is still very busy today but with leisure boats.

We see many pubs next to the canal and mainly at locks but the Admiral Nelson at Braunston must be one of the closest to a lock we have seen.

The Braunston flight

The only locks on the section between Napton and Norton junctions are the six on the Braunston flight (although I don’t have a picture of the top lock).  These are double width locks as we are back on the main Grand Union.  The reason Karen operates the locks is because of my bad back, not because I am lazy or anything like that.

Braunston tunnel

After ascending the Braunston flight the summit is reached and then the mile long Braunston tunnel.  The tunnel has airshafts and we both tried to take pictures as we went underneath.  You can guess who got the best picture and who had their camera the wrong way round.

Norton junction

This is the toll house at Norton junction.  Braunston is down on the left and we had to turn sharp left to go up the Leicester line on the right.  My sister Judith and her partner Nigel joined us for the weekend here to take the trip up to Crick.

Staircases

A few miles after Norton junction we passed the lorry park at Watford Gap services on the M1.  Lorry drivers were eating their sandwiches on the side of the canal - watching a change of pace I suspect.  Soon after that was the Watford staircase; this is a series of four locks where the top gates of one lock are the bottom gates of the next.  This means that traffic has to be one way only.  You go through the whole flight before someone can travel in the opposite direction.  I still can’t quite get my head round these locks but Karen seems OK with them.

Yellow wagtails had built a nest in one of the lock gates and eggs had been laid.

Just before we got to Crick we had to go through Crick tunnel.  Here you will see Nigel in one of his more usual poses.

Oxford to Napton

The Oxford canal

Still heading for Crick in the spring of 2013 we joined the Oxford canal at its southern end in Oxford.  It was completed in 1790 and runs for 77 miles from Oxford to Hawkesbury in Warwickshire where it joins the Coventry canal.  It is a narrow canal so only one boat can enter each lock and boats wider than ours (6’ 10”) cannot use the canal.  There are 43 locks and many lift bridges; these bridges are very popular on this canal and if you look you’ll see them as you go up the M40 to Birmingham:

Consequently the bridge holes by locks can also be tight - this is Allen’s bridge at Allen’s lock near Little Heyford.

Joining the canal at Oxford

A tiny cut called Sheepwash Channel runs from the Thames under Oxford railway station and comes out at the first lock on the Oxford - Isis lock with its pretty iron footbridge.  It’s hard to believe this is the middle of a city.  Halfway along Sheepwash Channel you go past an old swing bridge that used to carry trains through Oxford. Just north of here the canal enters Jericho, a rather upmarket area of Oxford with some lovely moorings and pubs.

The trip

Oxford to Napton is 37 miles (by canal) and 38 locks.

Heading up to Banbury

We had glorious weather in April 2013 even though many mornings were still frosty.  No better way to start the day than sitting on deck with coffee watching the mist burn off and the frost on the bankside.  Mind you no better way to end the day than doing the same thing with wine like here at Aynho on 20th April.

The canal runs right through Banbury and a new shopping centre takes advantage of the canal unlike at Reading.  We were unlucky with pubs and only found naff ones!

Cropredy

Soon after Banbury the canal goes through Cropredy which is famous for the annual Fairport Convention festival (we came back for the festival in the summer).  Nice pubs in Cropredy and typical thatched Cotswold stone houses.  A new marina was under construction although it was nowhere near meeting the opening date shown here!

We went through some other pretty places:

Further north the canal enters Northamptonshire and we hadn’t realised how beautiful the countryside was in this county:

Oxford canal locks

Here are the 39 locks between Oxford and Napton junction.  Running from number 46 in Oxford to number 8 at Napton.

Locks 46 - 38

Locks 37 - 32

Locks 31 -26

Locks 25 - 20

Locks 19 - 14

Locks 13 - 8

On the move again

The first weekend of April 2013 was gorgeous, a complete contrast to the start of 2013.  We decided that our medium term goal was to get to Crick by the late May bank holiday.  Crick is in Northamptonshire and the marina there hosts an annual boat show.  Karen’s cousin (Dave) and his wife (Barbara) help friends at the show and we had agreed to meet up.  These friends of Dave and Barbara build narrow boats and exhibit one each year at Crick so welcome help showing punters round.  Dave and Barbara also own a narrow boat and were bringing it down to Crick from Cheshire so we thought it would be a great way to meet up.

Up the Thames from Reading to Oxford

We decided that the first leg would be to Oxford and we should do that over the weekend so set off from our moorings of four weeks at Frys Island in Caversham:

As you can see it was a beautiful day:

All the locks are manned between 9 and 5 other than at lunchtimes.  Outside these hours you have to operate the locks yourself.  Here are some of the locks between Reading and Oxford.

 

All locks on rivers have weirs to control the river flow and on the Thames tend to be very wide as in this one at Goring:

We cruised for ten hours on that Saturday - our first cruise for many months because of the 
awful winter and spring.  It was a great day: we saw the first butterfly of the year and Saints won. We had left red wine warming by the stove ready for our return from the Wagon and Horses at Culham where we had a well deserved beer or two:

On the Sunday we set out to complete the remainder of the trip.  We had a slight mishap at Abingdon just after this picture was taken:

I won’t say who was driving but in their defence the buoy marking the sandbank had come adrift.  We were well and truly stuck as we had been going at 5 knots (you are allowed to go faster on wide rivers than on narrow canals).  We called a rescue company but they couldn’t get out to us for a couple of days as they had two boats to rescue further up the Thames and there was a sunken narrow boat just north of Oxford that they would have to wait to be recovered.

In the end the guy on the red boat in the picture turned up and came over to drag us off backwards.  This was rather comical as he was obviously rather hung over and couldn’t work out why his boat would only turn one way - his anchor was down.  Anyway once that was sorted he soon had us moving again. Of course by that time there were plenty of locals capturing the antics on their phone videos.

Here are some of the bridges we went under that weekend:

And some of the places we passed on the way:

And some of the smart houses on the Thames: