Cleddau was moored up in the Arm at the Saltisford Canal Centre in Warwick for a couple of nights. For a small fee / donation boaters get a safe mooring with easy access to a water tap. Several of the boats in the Arm are residential. Visitors can browse (and buy) from the substantial book and DVD stock in the office as well as make use of the excellent laundry facilities.  All the boat owners here are wonderfully committed to the Saltisford Canal Trust ; on display in the well-maintained grounds are a number of canal-related artefacts.

A poster detailed an upcoming Open Day – here’s hoping the events were a great success…

Once domestic duties were completed there was time to walk up into the town. On a windy leaf-swirling day it wasn’t the pleasantest of walks…

The town centre is higher than the canal level.  Schools had reopened, it wasn’t a market day so the streets were relatively quiet.

There are many good-looking buildings, none more so than in the vicinity of the Lord Leycester Hospital on Warwick’s High Street.

Never a hospital in the sense understood today, the medieval buildings have stood in Warwick for over seven hundred years.

Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I) established the hospital in the buildings  as a family of Brethren (all former military personnel) who abide by a set of rules

mphasising civic duty, kindness, care of others and philanthropy. In a most ancient setting modern day military heroes can live in peace and dignity within a supportive community.

Over the years the Hospital has received many important visitors – and it was on this chair that King James 1 was seated

during a three day banquet in 1617…

After a second night it was farewell to Saltisford – and farewell to the new mural, (mural 1)which via some time travel seems to portray Shakespeare with a globe (or a skull) at the tiller, heading for Warwick Castle. It certainly makes you wonder…

There was also a special farewell to Jo Lodge, who lives here on nb Hadar. It was a pleasure to meet her, to share news of a mutual friend in America – and to realise a shared  passion for playing The Great British Railways board game… Out of the Arm,

to turn sharp right back onto the Grand Union main line.  A runner on the towpath opposite could see further ahead under Bridge 52. “There’s a big barge coming,” she said.

Too right it was a big barge, a full-sized broad beam nosing towards the bridge hole.

The Captain put Cleddau into reverse, indeed, her bow into the bushes, but managed to keep the hull out of harm’s way. Along towards the bottom of the Hatton Flight went the broad beam

and, coast and bridge hole now clear, Cleddau proceeded towards the two Cape locks. There were observers on the offside, New Zealanders from North Island. “We’ve seen nothing like this before,” exclaimed the lady. She relished the opportunity to have a go with a windlass. It was tougher than she expected – and yet again there was a “muscles in your arms” conversation…

There’s a tight winding hole below the Cape Bottom Lock – and a memory flashed back into mind of a blog post written by the late Les Biggs, regaling the merits of this “Five Mile Prison”, the stretch of canal between Cape Bottom Lock and Radford Bottom Lock. (To read it see final section of his post  )

Onward, some of the new housing under construction last summer opposite the old Kate Boatssite is lived in now, the rest is nearing completion.

Over the River Avon Aqueduct

(remember seeing the small flow of the Avon making its first public appearance up at Welford-on-Avon in Northamptonshire earlier this year…)

There was the briefest of stops at the Leamington canal side Lidl, but then onwards, past the amazing Cat and Mouse mural (mural 2) beside the student hall of residence.

As the canal leaves the town there’s a third striking image beside a bridge (mural 3, Girl with Turquoise Eyes).

The town seems to end abruptly and the canal reaches the countryside. As delightful a mooring area as it is, the open views at Radford Semele were bypassed this time.

Cleddau and crew were continuing, there were places to be, timings to meet…

A shorter boat was tied to the lock landing at Radford Bottom Lock.

To share 5 locks with a pair of young fit boaters was a bonus indeed.

An overnight mooring, just metres from the HS2 workings near Southam, was a curious experience; canal transport was overtaken by the development of the railways – here the contentious HS2 project is eating up vast areas of land to speed rail travellers a little faster between a station north of London and Birmingham…

(And while moored here the historic butty boat Raymond was towed by, en route, perhaps, to the Saltisford Open Day.

Onward next day, through Welsh Road Lock first. It’s always a pretty spot.

In the window of the lock cottage was a Stop HS2 poster.

Next then to the Bascote Locks, two singles and a staircase of two. Here it was the down coming Australians (2 North Queenslanders on a five week hire boat holiday) who kept the Captain talking.

“The pound is very low,” the Captain then warned Boatwif. “Go slowly and keep to the centre of the channel.” Would there be enough water to get into the staircase bottom lock? 

Slowly, carefully, Cleddau crept into the lock. When the water levelled the water line was certainly below the usual mark.

A mooring at Long Itchington was a suitable liaison point for the Cheshire Three to deliver a birthday card and return the cake box used in July for Techno Son-in-Law’s birthday bash. 

Inside the cake box was – another cake…! (It was delicious!)

One timing successfully met, the next liaison was to be at the top of Stockton Locks two days hence. A stroll along to Itchington Bottom Lock

coincided with a C&RT worker operating the pumps to adjust the water levels in the pound below the lock.

Water resources seemed to be a problem here – and elsewhere.  A C&RT email had informed about low water levels on the Braunston top level. Would Cleddau have to plough her way back up to Crick…?  But on a sunny Sunday afternoon just watching several boats going through the lock provided some good sport for a group of gongoozlers…

For her second diary date Cleddau would have to climb another 10 locks.

Up two – and past The Blue Lias pub.

As boats were crossed there were various conversations: there was another Crick Marina boat, there was a boat from the Nen (no, absolutely not the River Nene) and then there was the boater who lives near Bristol and had recently left the Kennet and Avon Canal.

“Crick? – ‘eard of it…”

“It’s near Watford Gap?” the Captain informed, the response to which was just a shrug.

“Just off the M1, Junction 18,” the Captain further explained.

“M1 – never been on it…”  said the lady, now in her retirement. This seemed a seriously chastening thought, was it better never to have experienced the convenience and the horror of the M1 or to consider one blessed to have always escaped it…?!

Onwards, continuing up the Stockton Locks, such well-behaved locks, aided all the way by a very efficient volunteer.

It was a quiet climb. There is tree cover either side, an occasional metallic sound from a factory unit hidden behind the trees on the offside and the sporadic sound of a collar dove… That was all. Stockton Top Lock reached.

Not much further to go. Was it time to check in at Kate Boats?

“Yes – but whatever you do don’t touch the red boat!” was the telephone instruction, “it’s just come out of the paint shed.”

“Where is the entrance?” Boatwif called from the bow. “I can’t see it!” There was a shiny red boat to the right and on the left a good-looking green boat.

It was a breathe-in-tight and hold your nerve situation… successfully achieved!

Next time: Bus timetables!

Warwick to Stockton: 11 miles, 22 locks, 0 swing bridges, 0 tunnel passages

2024 Totals

: 473 miles, 14 tunnel passages, 293 locks, 31 swing bridges

 *2024 

Monkton Moments*(Monkton Moment*- a reference to / recognition of Cleddau’s Pembrokeshire connections)

 – now 24 

(a towpath walker who knew Milford Haven)

Tudor Rose enquiries: 4

Footballs floating in the cut: 10

Supermarket trolleys visible in the cut: 4

Rescued: 1 garden gnome

Car in the river – 1

Brides – 2