Stoke Bruerne (coincidental lock)

Before I talk about our Wednesday I must firstly apologise to Chris & Sue’s dog, Bracken.  For some reason I called her Bramble in yesterday’s blog entry.  I haven’t got her name wrong before and can only think that the last boat we saw before mooring up on Monday, which was called Bramble, just confused my mind – not difficult at my age.

Our plan for Wednesday was to get to the bottom of the Stoke Bruerne flight leaving just the flight itself and a few miles to go on Thursday.  As it happened, we were both awake early with neither of us feeling we could doze off again so we decided to set off early and then get further than planned if we felt like it.

After three miles we reached Cosgrove lock which is at the start of the long climb all the way to the summit at Norton junction to the east of Braunston.  We have been going downhill ever since getting off the Aylesbury Arm at Marsworth a month ago.

The relatively shallow Cosgrove lock

At the top of the lock an old arm goes off to the left with some residential moorings on it.  The arm, the Old Stratford Cut, used to go a mile or so down to Old Stratford but, apart from the short section at the beginning, is now derelict.  After leaving the lock, Karen and Buddy went for a run ahead of me towards Stoke Bruerne. 

The stretch between Cosgrove and Stoke Bruerne is really rural with the odd farmhouse – a lovely part of Northamptonshire.

One of the farmers' accommodation bridges typical of this part of the Grand Union canal

When I reached Yardley Gobion, I met Karen and Buddy at the bridge on their way back to meet me.  We decided to continue to the service moorings at the bottom of the Stoke Bruerne flight before we stopped for lunch.  It had begun to feel a bit cold, as it can do just standing on the back of a boat without moving, and I donned my gloves for the last couple of miles.  Karen went inside and started packing away some of the more fragile items that we would be upset to find broken when we arrive in France.

 

After lunch we agreed we were up to getting to the top of the flight and mooring just before Blisworth tunnel, this would leave us just about 3 miles with no locks to do on Thursday. 

I was looking through my emails before we set off and was pleased to see an email from my middle brother, Adrian.  He had volunteered to pick a few pieces of music for our mother’s memorial ceremony and had suggested a piano piece by Scarlatti.  Adrian had mentioned this to our father and, apparently, Mum’s most played cassette tape was of Scarlatti’s piano sonatas.  Adrian’s email said, ‘Looks like I made a serendipitous choice!’.  Not only was that true but I was also jealous that he had got the word into a natural sentence 😒

Karen dropping the paddles at one of the bottom locks whilst Buddy has a good sniff

During the day we passed three stanking plank piles.  The first two piles were of new planks and at either side of Cosgrove lock.  The third pile contained old planks that we had seen before and was near the top of the Stoke Bruerne flight.  I have included all three as they will probably be the last pictures of UK stanking planks you will see for a while.

Top of Cosgrove lock; bottom of Cosgrove lock; top of fifth lock up the Stoke Bruerne flight

We were soon into a good rhythm going up the locks and it seemed no time at all before we were approaching the top lock.  At the penultimate lock I asked Karen if she felt emotional about going up the last locks in the UK for a while.  She said she hadn’t thought about it but wasn’t surprised that I felt emotional about it.

Approaching the top lock (the sun had come out and was encouraging people to eat outside at the pub)

In our last lock in the UK for a while

As we were waiting for the lock to fill Karen reminded me that not only was it our last lock in the UK it was also the first lock we had taken most of our children down on our first family narrowboat holiday – now that’s what I call serendipitous 😉

I did have tears in my eyes contrary to how it looks 

We cruised through the honeypot that is Stoke Bruerne and moored up just before the entrance to Blisworth tunnel.  The sun was now out, and a few people were wandering up and down the towpath but it was the quietest we had ever seen it at any time of year.

Moored for Wednesday night between Stoke Bruerne and Blisworth

Karen had prepared a sausage casserole in the slow cooker after breakfast and it was great to have a hearty meal ready once we settled in for the evening.

During the day we cruised 9 ½ miles up eight locks.