 |
Gorgeous sunset from the boat
on Tuesday evening
|
On Tuesday morning Buddy
and I walked up the Stratford canal to the top of the Lapworth flight of locks
and then turned left to visit Lapworth church. Lapworth is one of those
villages that moved, so the church is now a
couple miles away from the current village which grew up around the canals rather than the church.
On the way I noticed a
boat, called Squeeze Box, was adrift as one of its mooring pins had pulled
out. There didn’t seem to be anyone
around but I thought I’d give a quick knock before clambering onto someone
else’s boat. As I went to knock on the
door, it opened and a couple came out.
They had just realised that the boat was diagonally across the canal and
were coming out to re-pin it.
I held the boat while they
got the pins safe and I said I recognised them but not from where. The lady got it immediately, she said I had
rescued them when they got stuck in one of the Astwood locks on the Birmingham
& Worcester canal. They had just
picked up the boat and weren’t aware they should drive with the fenders up,
especially in locks. They had stuck fast
but we got them moving by slowly letting water in. I have a long lasting recollection of him
going round with a knife, angrily cutting off the gunwale fenders once the boat was
safe 😊
There were quite a few
boats on the move up and down the flight so I suspect some areas are on half
term already. Once we reached the top
lock we turned onto the country lane that leads down to the church.
 |
Church built before 1200
(date not time) and has clearly been added to over the years
|
The church was open so
Buddy and I had a look around. The most
interesting thing to me was the unusual flat roof:
Another odd feature of
this church is that the tower was built separately, in the 1300s, but a
passageway to the church was added about 400 years later. You can’t really see this feature from the exterior picture of the church above.
I fancied a more circular
walk so headed down a footpath opposite the church rather than back towards the
canal. It led through a really large
cattle field and I passed a couple of ladies whose dogs were off their leads
but I didn’t dare let Buddy off.
Fortunately the cows were right across the other side; Buddy's not keen on cows.
 |
You can just see the cows
in the far distance, to the right
|
We also passed one of the
small brick field barns but this one has clearly been converted to a stable:
 |
| Brick built field barn complete with silhouetted horse |
We re-joined the canal at
the beautifully maintained Lapworth cricket field:
This canal-side house is near the top
of Lapworth and has slowly been added to over recent years. Each addition has taken more of the garden
and this latest addition leaves just a small area of decking. Not sure how that would affect the resale
value especially for families with young children.
After lunch we had another
walk and this time we bumped into Jo on his boat, Pohutukawa. I mentioned Jo and Lisa when we passed them
the other day; they are now living on a boat that our friends, Craig and Sarah,
sold them. Jo and I spent a pleasant
half an hour chatting, mainly about boat life of course. He and Lisa, are both teachers, and have sold
their house and are having a year out whilst deciding what to do with their
lives. It’s always fascinating to hear people’s stories and never ceases to amaze me
how people have the guts to sell up and move onto a boat without ever being on
one before. I had to keep Buddy on his
lead whilst we were chatting as one of their cats wasn’t scared of him and crossed the towpath in front
of him a couple of times.
On Wednesday morning I
dropped Karen at work at six and then Buddy and I drove up to Yorkshire to see
my parents for a couple of nights. It’s
looking hopeful that Mum may be allowed home next week. It’s amazing that the bones in her ankles
seemed to have healed after only four weeks.
My dad has had a stairlift installed, one of the prerequisites for her
being allowed home. The family feel
happier now that the lift is there as there is less of a chance that Dad will
fall down the stairs. I had a go on it
as well but didn’t allow Buddy on, much to the children’s disappointment.
The drive up to Yorkshire
is obviously not much fun for Buddy but we arrived by ten and went straight to
the river so he could have a run:
In the middle of the
afternoon I took him on a longer walk, partly along the canal. This canal-side milestone, in the middle of the village,
rather gives away the name of the canal:
Buddy was happy to be back
by canal water and made it quite clear as soon as we got onto the towpath:
I rang Karen in the evening and, as it happened, she was just getting back to the boat after work. She was most concerned as the solar lights weren't on. It must have been a pretty dismal day in the Midlands and the lights only lasted a few hours or, probably just as likely, the wind had blown over the solar receiver which is in one of the plant pots.
 |
| The aqueduct where the Leeds & Liverpool canal crosses the Crosber Beck which joins the River Aire in my parent’s village, Gargrave |
No comments:
Post a Comment