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I had forgotten to tell
Sophie about the notoriously greasy winding gear at Cape locks
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Sophie and Yanos came up
to stay for a few days on Monday; Sophie is my eldest daughter and they are
getting married in June this year. They
arrived at Saltisford on Monday evening just as Karen and I returned from our
weekly bridge session at Stratford. We
only have three more bridge evenings before we leave the area and will miss our
weekly get togethers, over the last two years, with Jo and Ileen – lovely ladies who always have
fascinating stories to tell through their connections with eminent residents of
Stratford and the local area.
Even though Monday was
another sunny day I only saw one butterfly, a male Brimstone, on our walks
during the day.
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Preparing kindling on
Monday – hopefully the last batch until the autumn
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On Tuesday I took Sophie and
Yanos on a tour of Warwick as it was their first visit there. We couldn’t go around the various secret
gardens as only one of them allows dogs in and a couple weren’t yet open for
the tourist season. We visited the four gates and wandered around some of the prettier streets and had a
walk by the river. It was quite a
contrast with Sunday when the weather was warm and the town and parks were full
of people; we had intermittent rain showers and were the only people in St
Nicholas park when we had our picnic!
The pair of mallards that have been in the centre of town for the last few days, looking lost and forlorn, have now made their way to the post office where there is an ornamental pond. They looked quite content asleep on the edging stones so maybe they'll end up nesting there.
We had a look around St
Mary’s church as I wanted to see the ducking stool that is kept in the
crypt. This is one of only two left in
the country – the other one is at Leominster.
The Leominster example is complete whereas the one at Warwick only has
the wheels and the fulcrum left – the wooden beam and chair have long since
gone. The part that is left is called
the tumbrel.
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Last used in the late
1700s and has been kept in the crypt for over 200 years
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| Information board showing the complete item |
Later in the afternoon we cruised
the two miles to Leamington. As we
approached the Cape locks, we came passed Whizz and Matt on their boat who were
just casting off so we went down the locks with them. They have taken a few months off from their
jobs and were setting off to travel around the north. Coincidentally they had similar plans to us;
go up to Chester and then explore the Leeds & Liverpool canal. Like us they have had to re-plan because of
the breach at Middlewich but no doubt we will bump into them off and on over
the coming months.
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Yanos and Sophie getting
the bottom lock ready
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When I saw Sophie holding
her hands up and away from her I realised she had got them covered in
grease. For some reason the safety
chains on the winding gear at the two Cape locks seem to be constantly covered
in grease which is most unusual. Of
course, I had forgotten to remind her ☹
We stopped for water
before carrying on and mooring back outside Lidl in Leaminton.
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Buddy on hose (and
daffodil) guard duty
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Cruising past Warwick cemetery
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Leaving Warwick and
heading back to Leamington
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Before I sign off I’ll
include the email I received from Ian Lane, the Waterways Manager for the West
Midlands area. This email was in
response to my complaint about the boaters’ rubbish point being removed from
the bottom lock at Hatton. I suppose it’s
reasonable if the promised facilities at Saltisford are available but I really
think they should have alerted boaters to the impending change through the
email alert system we can sign up to.
Hello Neil –
thank you for your email and please accept my apologies for the lack of
information on this. Our actions should have been accompanied by signage which
I will chase up. Also thank you for taking to the time to help us keep the
towpath clean – it is much appreciated.
By way of
background we have seen a drastic increase in the cost of our waste management
across the waterway. This increase obviously means that some of our other
services are starting to be impacted. Having looked at this in more detail we
have identified that the cause of this is that many sites are now being used by
non-canal users. Unfortunately we cannot keep accepting this so we are trying
to look at ways to reduce this cost whilst still providing the vital facilities
to our customers.
In this location
we started consultations with the IWA, local waterway partnership and other
local groups to see how we could tackle the issues. As a result we are now
removing the bins at the top lock (within the public car park) and bottom locks
and are improving the bins at the top lock cafรฉ. We have also spoken to the
Saltisford Arm and they are happy for people to use their bins. Both sites are
less accessible to the public which we hope will reduce some of the issues we
face whilst still providing adequate local facilities. Whilst this proposal was
agreed by the groups involved and I must apologise that we didn’t go wider on
the consultation.
With regard to
putting locks on the stores, we have done this in other locations and people
just leave rubbish all around it, or on top, so this has proved unsuccessful.
We appreciate that it may take a few months for the unauthorised rubbish to
stop so we accept some ongoing costs, however, we believe it is the right thing
to do in the longer term. Unfortunately the house adjacent to the bottom lock
is a perfect example of where our bins are being used by non-boaters. Whilst it
may seem reasonable for them to use them , we are not obliged to offer this
service to them which I assume they already pay the council for, and this is
typical across the country.
As I mentioned
before, this review is across the midlands so this won’t be the only site we
take action on. However, I must stress, this plan is not aimed at reducing the
facilities, it is about reducing costs that we shouldn’t be incurring so we can
provide better facilities and undertake our core duties.
I hope this helps
and gives some more background to our decision and apologies again also for the
lack of notice.
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