As is often the case
lately we can have breakfast with the doors and hatches open but there’s still
time for things to change as we are only just into March.
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Having breakfast on Friday
morning
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The South Stratford canal
is not served by a fuel boat as there are too many locks and not enough permanent
boaters to make it worthwhile. This
means we have to make alternative arrangements so on Friday one of my jobs
would be to go to the coal yard in Hockley Heath to pick up some coal.
As I was leaving for the
coal yard a chap stopped me and asked for advice. He has just bought a narrowboat and he and
two friends are moving it down to Gloucester.
They were one of the boats I stopped coming down the canal as they hadn’t
been aware of the lock closures. Since
then they have been moored fairly near us.
I was quite surprised at the questions he was asking as whoever sold him
the boat should have explained and, to be fair, he should have done some
research beforehand.
He wasn’t aware, for
example, that a special key is needed to access water points; he had been lucky
as the only time he had filled up with water so far, the water point had been
left unlocked. He wasn’t sure how to do
a pump out either and was concerned that he had two caps in his gunwales with ‘pump
out’ stamped on them. I went onto his
boat to see if I could help. He hadn’t been
shown where the holding and the water tanks were so we soon located those and
therefore worked out which cap he should use.
On our morning walk we met
up with a local lady who has taken a shine to Buddy and as it transpired she
knew a bit about the forthcoming wedding, Karen and I plied her with some
questions. The land with the marquee belongs to one of
the local farmers, Steven Smith, and it’s one of his two sons that are getting
married this Saturday. He is not related
to the retired farmer, Martin Smith, who I have been talking to this week.
After lunch we went for a
longer walk, stopping at the Fleur de Lys in Lowsonford for a drink as we had
forgotten to take any water with us.
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Karen investigating
someone’s garden on our circular walk
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I had done some research
into the stories that Martin Smith had been telling me and all seemed to tie up
with publications by groups like the Warwickshire History society etc. Martin’s family built their farmhouse at the
beginning of the 1800s (when the canals were being built) and he has lived
there all his life. He and his brother,
Noel, are all that are left of their family now so, as he says, their memories
will be lost forever soon as they are both in their 80s.
I couldn’t find out
anything about the crossroads burial of a man called Dick in Dick’s Lane but he
was absolutely right that it had been renamed from Anstruther Lane in the early
1800s. I had found a House of Commons
journal discussing the purchase of lands in the area for the building of the
canal and it was called Anstruther Lane in those days.
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This is the wash house at
Martin’s farm – in recent years it has been used as a workshop
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| Turners Green farm and outbuildings built by Martin's family - it has 1824 inscribed on the main house. Sun was a bit bright even though it looks a dark grey day! |
There was quite a bit of
activity in the marquee during the day and a massive generator and toilet block
had been brought in.
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Testing the lighting on
Friday evening
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