Karen was still off work
on Tuesday; I don’t think I’ve ever known her take time off work other than
when her back’s been bad, so it must be serious ☹
It was forecast to rain
all day, but stopped at about 10.00, so Buddy and I cruised the few hundred yards to the
Saltisford arm. We wanted to fill up with water before the weekend and, as we
don’t particularly like mooring at Cape (the next water point), I thought a
trip into the arm and then back to our current mooring would be the best thing
to do. In the end, I only reversed back to the junction as it's a nice sunny spot (when the sun comes out) and as it was fairly breezy I didn't fancy reversing back to where we had been moored below the bottom Hatton lock.
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Moored at the junction
with the Saltisford arm after getting water on Tuesday
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The arm is run by the
Saltisford Canal Trust rather than CRT so, after filling up, I popped down to
their office and gave them a donation for the water. The guy who runs the place is always friendly
and very helpful. A year ago, I fitted a
new beefy padlock to the rear hatch and the first time I used it I left the keys
indoors when Karen I went out for a walk. There was nothing for it but to
ring round for some bolt cutters; the guy at Saltisford said we could borrow
his. I must admit that walking along the
towpath with large bolt cutters did make Karen and me feel a bit like we had
criminal intent.
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Water point is near the
entrance to the arm – that’s us in the middle just before the bridge
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Buddy doesn’t like me using
the services here as there is only a short jetty and, as the front of the boat needs to be alongside the jetty, it means he cannot get off
the rear deck to have a nose around.
In the picture above, the little house to the
right of the jetty is the pump out house and was built in the 1980’s when the canal arm was
restored. Calling it an arm is not strictly
correct as it was originally the Warwick end of the Warwick and Birmingham
canal. About half the arm is still in
water but the other half was filled in during the 1970’s for housing and other
developments.
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The parapets of a bridge
that went across the canal
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The bridge above is about
all that remains to show the arm used carry on into Warwick. Interestingly, this bridge was never widened
as part of the widening scheme around 1930 when all the single width locks had
double width locks built next to them. The wider locks allowed more boats through and
also wider barges which meant the bridge holes had to be capable of taking 14’
wide barges. The bridge at the entrance to the arm (two pictures up) was widened but that was as far as they went on this
stretch.
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| OS map from 1887 (courtesy of Peter Perry who has lots of information on the history of Warwick) |
The canal shown in blue on
the map above is what was filled in during the 1970’s. The bridge just below the railway bridge is
the one where only the parapets remain.
The Antelope pub now sits where the canal terminated at the two wharfing
arms.
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Looking out to the
Saltisford arm from our new mooring
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In the afternoon, Buddy
and I had a wander around Warwick. I
needed to get my phone repaired and, whilst I waited, I thought I’d have a good
look around. Every so often I came
across something fascinating and went to take a picture, but of course I couldn’t;
I use the camera on my phone and that was in the shop being repaired – oh well,
another day then.
It started to rain again so
Buddy and I got soaked but soon dried out once we were back on the boat. By five o’clock the rain stopped and the sun tried
to come out. It was still fairly light
at 5.30 which shows spring is not too far away now 😊
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View from our new mooring
at 5.30 in the evening - is spring in the air?
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