Fenny Compton (Buddy gets his freedom back at last)

Moored at Fenny Compton on Thursday evening

There is definitely an autumnal feel to the mornings now as there is invariably mist on the water first thing.  With this in mind I spent Wednesday morning making sure the stove was ready to start using in the coming weeks.  After being used continuously for six months last winter some of the fire cement had started cracking.  If this happens then that’s when there’s a danger of being affected by escaping fumes.  When we were in Cropredy, Mike had taken me into Banbury one day to get the product I needed so I now had no excuse but to get on with it.

Buddy and I then walked the three miles to Fenny Compton; the OS map shows it as three miles but my iPhone said it was 2.2 miles – I know which I believe! 

Just after setting out we passed one of the DIS markers that appear a couple of hundred yards before many locks on the Oxford canal.  Similar markers appear on the Grand Union too. 

DIS marker above Claydon top lock

I find it amazing that no one seems to definitively know what these posts were for.  Reading forums and various websites brings many answers such as:

• Point where the driver cracks his whip to warn that the lock should be his (unless someone coming the other way has cracked their whip first 

• Point at which the lock, if in your favour, cannot be turned against you by a boat coming in the opposite direction

• Point after which no overtaking is allowed as the boats are approaching a lock (mechanised boats probably travelled faster)

Some people had dug out British Waterways byelaws and they seem to indicate that a lock cannot be turned (taken from you) if you are within a couple of hundred yards of the lock and it’s in your favour.  I must admit that this seems the most likely reason for these posts to indicate that point where the lock cannot be turned.  There must still be people alive today who used these and therefore knew the real reason.

Before leaving the subject I should point out that some canals in France have a similar signage but they specifically say "Limite de Trématage" - limit of overtaking - which rather lends itself to the no overtaking argument.

Family of cygnets with no parents around – they seemed a little young (for swans) to be on their own

A bit further on we passed a dismantled bridge that used to take the East & West Junction railway between Towcester (near Northampton) and Stratford upon Avon.

Old East & West Junction railway bridge and arches

To one side of the abutments are, what seems to me, older, canal age bricks forming oval abutments.  I cannot find out what these were for.

Light coloured canal age brickwork alongside the dark grey railway brick abutments

This section is part of the 11-mile-long summit at the top of the South Oxford canal and consequently it has to be constantly topped up with water as boats use the locks at either end.  There are three reservoirs as the canal heads north west and the first is Boddington reservoir which is a fair way from the canal and has a 2 ½ mile feeder channel.

Towpath bridge over the feeder channel from Boddington reservoir

A little further on is Wormleighton reservoir and this is right next to the canal so no feeder channel is required.

Water chute shoots water straight from Wormleighton reservoir to the canal below

Buddy loved going round the reservoir as there were wide areas of grass and he ran madly up and down to release his energy – he hasn’t had long walks since my back started playing up.

You can’t really see the black Buddy speck in the far distance on the left by the trees

Wormleighton reservoir

Nearer Fenny Compton we reached the cutting that used to be Fenny canal tunnel which was built in 1776.  The tunnel wasn’t very long – about a kilometre and suffered from subsidence as it wasn’t very far underground.  In 1838 the canal company bought the land above the tunnel and work began to open up the tunnel.  It was done in several stages; by 1840 the tunnel roof had been removed at both ends and in the middle thus creating two separate tunnels.   The southern tunnel had its roof removed by 1858 and the second in 1860 leaving the cutting boaters see today.  It is still referred to as Fenny tunnel though.

A stream used to run across the old tunnel into Wormleighton reservoir and an iron trough was installed when the tunnel roof was removed.  The trough has since been removed and water runs straight down the side of the cutting into the canal.

A stream that used to feed Wormleighton reservoir now runs into the canal

Typical Oxford canal towpath bridge crossing halfway along the ‘tunnel’

The towpath bridge still has a metal bar to protect the ropes from being worn on the brickwork when the boats were horse drawn.

Protective metal rod on the brick parapet

Looking along the line of the tunnel from the halfway point on top of the crossover bridge

This towpath crossover bridge moves the towpath from one side to the other but as it’s a standard bridge the towing lines would have had to be detached and reattached to the horses.  Some crossover bridges were more ingenious like the ones on the South Stratford canal that had a gap in the bridge to pass the line through. 

Typical split bridge on the South Stratford canal and a typical gongoozler taking pictures of us

Others, called turnover or roving bridges, allowed the horse to walk up one side and come down the other but in the opposite direction so that the horse would then go back under the bridge without having the towline removed.   

Turnover bridge at Braunston - see Braunston puddle banks

The turnover bridges on the Macclesfield canal are particularly pretty and they are called snake bridges on that canal.  This is one we went through when on our old boat:

By Thursday morning we were in desperate need of a pump out so Buddy and I set off to the boat yard at Fenny Compton

Going through the ‘tunnel’ on Thursday

The original tunnel was built with passing places which we still use today.

After topping up with diesel and getting a pump out we moored up to get all the washing done and have lunch.  We then set off for the Wharf pub at Fenny to top up with water, unfortunately, the skies darkened, the rain came and I got soaked sorting out the hosepipe and getting the water on board.

The sun soon came out again and we cruised on to the north side of Fenny and moored up for the day.

Our Thursday night mooring

It had been a busy day for me and Buddy so we just had a short walk in the late afternoon to have a look at the site of the medieval village of Wormleighton.  We passed a nice butterfly site managed by the Warwickshire Butterfly Conservation group, but sadly no butterflies.

 

There seems to be bumper fruit crops this year

 

I will probably have another cruise on Friday as Karen is going to work.