Tight Spots

Newbold-on-Avon to Norton Junction

16½ miles, 9 locks, 2 tunnel transits, 0 swing bridges

After the delightful, if “entertaining”, mooring near the Armada Boats (incident described here:) a strategy for a stop at Rugby had to be devised…Through the Newbold Tunnel,   past a boat with a lovely Welsh name,   over the aqueducts (2 of them),    passing yet another swan family with five cygnets    to arrive on the outskirts of Rugby.Along the North Oxford Canal the draw of a nearby Tesco Superstore attracts regular liveaboard boaters as well as holidaymakers out for a few days or weeks. The canal width at rugby is narrow, as is the towpath - and the canal curves round on a tight bend. From the easterly direction before Bridge 58 there are mooring restrictions – or are there? The signs are not completely clear… One boat was moored up before the Tesco footpath bridge and the Captain pulled in there. Off Boatwif jumped (with mobile phone) to assess mooring possibilities in the area of official mooring.Under Bridge 58 – a mooring spot still occupied by a rather sad looking cruiser that was there at least two weeks previously. Hmm…Boatwif walked a good distance along the towpath, past boat after boat after boat (not a cigarette paper between them, it seemed) but there was no hope of a mooring space.Back to Bridge 58. Conclusion - the boat must be secured where the Captain was holding it.In due course, shopping bags and bungee cords were assembled and the IKEA trolley lifted from its position on the front deck. Used occasionally to move bags of coal, would the trolley do loyal duty with a grocery shop?It did (no photo evidence but fridge, freezer, wine stocks and fresh veg were all successfully replenished…!)Off Cleddau set, onward towards the next navigational challenge, the Hillmorton Locks. For quite some distance it was a squeeze past the Rugby-moored boats. Among them was a boat whose home base is Poynton     (a Cheshire East reference) while Derwent6     was on the one mooring beside the park.Onward, past Clifton Cruisers.  Beside a high hedge was a fine stretch of mooring. From behind the hedge purred machinery and the occasional clonk of a golf ball. So out of sight, but not out of hearing, was Rugby Golf Club.Finding a mooring for a 60 foot boat can be challenging enough – how about finding space for 140 plus feet…? Late afternoon there was a sense of something very big coming in alongside. A 1930s historic motor boat towing an engine-less butty was seeking an overnight mooring,…   The Captain helped the outfit in and loaned the crew an extra mooring chain and a phone charging cable.   Brighton and Nuneaton are run by volunteer crew for The Waterways Trust – and a couple of days later the boats were spotted neatly tied up in Braunston Marina. See video here of the pair in demonstration at Alvecote Marina   .As the afternoon sun shone on the opposite side of the canal the Captain busied himself in picking blackberries, then weighing them and dividing the fruit into four packages for freezing… It all seemed such a lovely seasonal thing to do – pity about the aching shoulders that night and the next…Just in time the following morning Boatwif caught the old working boats’ departure. It would have been interesting to see how the motor and the butty climbed the Hillmorton Locks but they were an hour ahead of Cleddau…Up the Hillmorton 3 locks – where boaters’ rubbish bins are extremely difficult to find: up a slope, across a road bridge, through the old British Waterways yard, through the first car park – and they are at the back of the second car park. The Biffa bins were full and there were no separate recycling bins - not impressed!You do meet all sorts at Hillmorton Locks – the helpful, the impatient, the novices and the long ago boaters who have forgotten most of what they once knew… Onward, past these new housing blocks, which seem to be classic examples of building up to gain more space. But where were they? Are their addresses in Hillmorton…?  in,  in … where? Where is this place?(Via Google search the buildings have been identified as in Clifton upon Dunsmore). …….Then there was a squeeze past The Waterside Pub. There’s not much width here, especially when someone is trying to tie up, Cleddau was trying to inch past and there was an oncoming boat.There’s a long line of canal side moorings at Barby. On grass next to the newish Barby Marina three alpacas had space to graze.  Meanwhile In the heat of the day in various fields sheep and cows crowded under trees and beside shade-giving hedges. Then on the towpath there was a Men at Work sign.  Bridge repairs were under way. A beautifully quiet mooring spot a couple of miles out of Braunston was found. Shame that the towpath space was too tight to get out the picnic table. The approach to Braunston from the north is always pleasing – evidence of the rolling ridge and furrow fields, the glorious church spire, the faint shape of the sail-less windmill… Plan A at Braunston to fill up with water on the corner by Midland Chandlers was foiled by two other boats already on site… Squeezing past Cleddau had greater success at the next water point and then at finding a mooring space (have the boat crowds now gone home?!) and in taking a stroll around Braunston Marina.Brighton, the butty moored in front of Cleddau two nights earlier Two plaques of interest for canal historians   Leads and ropes at Tradline Rope and Fenders  Classic Braunston view The climb back up to the Leicester Line started the next day, sharing the six locks of the Braunston Flight with a Kate hire boat.  Madelaine was crewed by novice narrow boaters who at home were keen sailors “on the Ocean”.Which ocean…?  Why, the Pacific, off Baja California in a catamaran…Carefully and flawlessly Madelaine’s steerer brought the boat into each of the six locks and kept her cool in the busy pounds as up-coming and down-coming boats were swapping positions.    (Using a tiller on small sailing boats as a child seemed to have something to do with her excellent hand /eye coordination.)“Look at the date!” her partner called out, having spotted a date in the wall at Top Lock. 1874.   The Captain then provided a potted history of the Duke of Bridgewater and his coal mines, canal development and its impact on industrialisation. Dates of course can refer to later improvements. Up by the lock gates Boatwif explained to her partner the surprise sighting of a canal and lock gates in Lowell, Massachusetts during  a 1997 New England visit…35 feet 6 inches higher than down in Braunston the canal now weaves on through Braunston Tunnel  and along towards Norton Junction. It was so tempting to pull in under shady trees – but might there be a shady spot with a bit of a view…  Cleddau crept on, found a space, albeit with half a good view. This area is popular – but a bit further on Boatwif spotted a potential gap, paced it out and declared it worth a try…Success!    Though a tight spot it might have been, the deep, wide water  and the sunset was well worth the squeeze!Next time: A crack at Cracks Hill

2023 totals: 350½ miles, 269 locks, 6 swing bridges, 17 tunnels

 Do you live aboard?  FAQ now posed 22 times2023 Monkton Moments*– 9 (Monkton Moment*- a reference to / recognition of Cleddau’s Pembrokeshire connections)Number 9 From the towpath near Braunston Tunnel: “I know where that is. I used to work in Pembroke Dock… Pembroke Castle…” (All spoken in a South Pembrokeshire accent.)