Our second day of narrowboating sees us continuing upstream on the Avon River. As we approach Stratford we calculate that we have made our way through 8 locks and sailed about 14 miles, averaging about 2mph for the day! Not too bad given that this is really our first day (yesterday was only a couple of hours) and we were still getting used to the boat and the locks.
Our plan is to moor overnight at Bancroft Basin which is at the junction of the Stratford Canal and the Avon River, and also right in the heart of the township. The basin is separated from the river by the first lock of the canal (or the last depending on which way you are going!) and this is one lock that you really need to get right.
It is a lovely Sunday afternoon in mid September and the riverbanks are full of visitors enjoying the town and its waterways. As we approach we realise that this is not just another lock, it is also a bridge where people can cross from one side of the basin to the other and it is very busy. The sight of a narrowboat approaching rapidly swells the number of spectators, eager to see a lock in action! By the time we have nosed into shore adjacent to the lock gates to drop off the lock crew there is quite a crowd watching, so the pressure is really on! Don’t want to stuff this one up! Fortunately it all goes well and to the observers we look like we have been doing this all our lives. Whewwww! What a relief.
We motor through the lock and into Bancroft Basin, manoeuvre into a vacant mooring spot on one of the pontoons and gratefully tie up the narrowboat with a collective sigh of relief and satisfaction from a job well done.
We spend a few hours walking around the town exploring, then find a nice looking restaurant for an enjoyable, relaxing dinner. After the meal we continue to wander around the now dark town and marvel at the fabulous buildings that are so beautifully illuminated as we make our way back to the basin for a well deserved sleep.
Next day we are underway around 9am (remember to turn on the fridge!) to begin our northward journey on the Stratford Canal. While the principle is still the same we find that the locks are quite different to those on the river. Canal locks are only a single door at either end of the chamber because the canal is far narrower, so operating the locks is quicker, though the doors tend to be heavier and therefore harder to get moving – particularly for Chris who is only about 5ft tall and weighs virtually nothing. We also find that the paddle winches tend to be a bit stiffer than their river equivalents and take a bit more grunt to operate.
The canal itself is much narrower than the river, particularly in the lock chambers which are only a few inches wider than the narrowboat. There are also numerous bridges along the canal to cater for road, rail and foot traffic and some of these are quite low and very narrow. Under the bridges there is also a tow pathway, left over from when the narrowboats were towed by horses, so the actual canal width is often, again, only a couple of inches wider than the boat. This takes a bit of getting used to. Remember that the ‘skipper’ driving the boat is way down the back, some 60ft away from the bow, so learning to judge and manoeuvre through these narrow gaps takes a bit of practice. The crumbled brickwork and paint scars on many of the bridges bear silent witness to this and are a regular and sobering reminder to take it easy.
Another lesson quickly learnt is that each lock has an overflow bypass channel that diverts excess water around the lock. This channel usually flows back into the side of the canal just below the lock gate. If you forget to take this side flow into account when approaching the lock entrance you quickly find that your carefully prepared ‘arrow straight’ entry is thrown askew as the current inexorably pushes the nose of the boat to the opposite side, away from the overflow. Your planned perfect entry thus deteriorates into a ‘ping pong ball’ approach where you bounce back and forth between the narrowing brick walls of the lock entrance as you ‘rattle’ into the lock chamber. If nothing else, it is a good opportunity for the remainder of the crew to give the skipper a hard time!
A short journey up the canal from the centre of Stratford brings us to the next British Waterways water point where we take the opportunity to refill the water tank again. Four crew members showering, plus meals and drinks, consumes the water supply surprisingly quickly and topping up is virtually a daily requirement.
Locks are used to ‘step’ up and down hills and are how the waterway is kept at a navigable depth throughout its length, over terrain of varying heights. Where the terrain is particularly steep the canals utilise a series of locks in close proximity, these are called a flight of locks. About 2 miles up the canal from Stratford brings you to the ‘Wilmcote Flight’ which is a group of 11 locks, in sets of 3, 5, and 3. This flight is spread over only 1 mile of canal which equates to an average of a lock every 160 yards. As you can imagine, this keeps you busy for a while as you pass through them!
The reward for completing the Wilmcote Flight appears a couple of miles further up the canal when you arrive at the Edstone Aqueduct. The aqueduct was built in 1813 and consists of an iron trough resting on thirteen tapering brick piers. It is 28ft high and 475ft long and spans a road, a stream and a double-track railway line as well as fields populated by grazing cattle. It is impossible to adequately describe the weird sensation of cruising along in a boat and looking down on cars, trucks, trains and fields. Not to mention the expressions on the faces of surprised drivers looking up at a boat crossing a bridge above them!
After the fascination and excitement of the aqueduct it was only a short cruise up to the public moorings at Wootton Wawen where we tied up for the night, opposite the Anglo-Welsh marina. The Navigation Inn was a short walk from the mooring and we enjoyed a relaxing couple of hours there with a meal and a few drinks. We strolled back to the boat as the colour drained from the sky and the canal presented the most fabulous reflections of the pinky-purple dusk.
This was our third night on the water and tomorrow would mark the halfway point of our trip, only one more day of ‘virgin’ water for us until it was time to turn back and retrace our steps to the Evesham marina. The adventure and enjoyment was far from over though and I will detail more of the trip in another section shortly.