Sunday 13th – Saturday 19th July
The first goal, in fact the only goal today was to get beyond Itchington Lock No13, the one that has been closed for the past two weeks. We made it but it was, particularly for Bev and Sue who did all the hard graft, very hard indeed. The locks themselves are not easy as they have paddle gear peculiar to this section of the Grand Union Canal which was upgraded from a narrow locks canal to a wide locks Canal between 1929 and the mid 1930’s. The paddles on the upgraded locks were the state of the art when installed but are now very heavy to operate and, because they operate on a hydraulic system, the ratchet windlass that both Bev and Sue own cannot be used.
We went down through 10 locks in the 30 plus degree (celsius) heat today. Bev and Sue did a magnificent job setting each lock, ‘cos Sods Law say that while not all locks will be set against you most will, opening the gates and closing them after the boats were in, then opening, in most cases very hard, ground paddles then after both boats had left the lock closing the gates and rushing to try to get the next lock set before the boats arrived and doing the whole again.
Monday was a repeat of Sunday, an early start, dropping down 10 locks in similar temperatures finally reaching Royal Leamington Spa in the early afternoon. We were now at the lowest point before Birmingham, only 37 locks to rise through in order to reach the city with more miles of canals than Venice.
The weather forecast for the next few days was pretty dire so we decided to stay in Leamington for a few days and rest after what had been a very tiring two days.
On our first full day in Leamington we wandered the short distance to the Morrison supermarket for supplies and in the evening went to dinner at a local Italian restaurant Villa Capri which was superb. Certainly a place to revisit if in the area again.
We had planned to stay at least one, perhaps two more days but the weather was improving quicker that originally anticipated so we got up early Wednesday morning planning to get through the two Warwick locks and if the weather held a few of the Hatton locks.
The Hatton Locks or Hatton Flight are a flight of 21 locks on the Grand Union Canal, they span less than 2 miles (3.2 km) of canal, and rise 45 metres (148 ft).
After passing through Warwick and it’s two locks we decided to go for the first few of the Hatton Flight, we planned not do them all as the top 10 locks were on restricted use, they were open only from 10am, the last boat being allowed in the restricted section at noon which then had to be clear of the restricted locks by 3pm. By the time we had reached our planned stopping place a system had been devised whereby Bev or Sue would open only one paddle on each lock. You would think opening a single paddle instead of both would double the time taken to fill or drain the lock chamber – not so – it increased the fill/drain time by just a couple of minutes but halved the work load. After Bev opened the one paddle and drained the lock both Bev and Sue opened the lock gates, Dave and I would enter the lock together, this sounds (and looks) hard but in reality is not difficult (after the first couple of attempts😱) and saves more time than single paddle use looses, when in the chamber we roped the stern of the boats together. Bev and Sue then closed the gates, Sue would then open a single paddle to fill the lock and both Bev and Sue would move to the next lock. When the chamber was full Dave motored the roped together boats out of the chamber but remained within the lock exit, I closed the open paddle, shut the gate got back on NB Fantasma, then Dave got off NB J-PEG and closed the gate on his side, after removing the stern rope it was Job done!
At 2pm we exited the 23rd lock of the day – Hatton Top Lock.
The flight was opened in December 1799 on the Warwick and Birmingham Canal. In 1929, the canal was renamed as the Grand Union Canal (on unification of a number of operators) and the decision was made to widen the Hatton stretch. In order to accommodate traders with heavy cargos of coal, sugar, tea and spices up the flight, the locks were widened to 14 feet (4.3 m) – allowing navigation by industrial boats or two single narrowboats. The widening was completed in the mid-1930s using a workforce of 1,000, and the revolutionary concrete lock system was opened by Prince George, Duke of Kent.
The flight was known as the “stairway to heaven” due to the difficulty of the flight and the subsequent easier journey to Camp Hill where the workmen would receive their wages.
We were all tired – well we had gone up 23 locks, but unlike when we did the 10 lock flights we were not exhausted, we even decided to go out to dinner at the Hatton Arms, sadly they were booked solid so we booked a table for tomorrow (Thursday).
Our dinner at the Hatton Arms was very good, so good that Bev and Dave booked a table for Friday Lunch where they arranged to meet friends.
Sue and I decided to go to the Hatton Top Lock Cafe for breakfast and enjoyed a very good breakfast indeed.
Bev, Dave and their friends were sadly disappointed, as they arrived at the pub the electricity went out and the pub was forced to cancel all food until the problem was fixed. They then went to the Top Lock Cafe where we had had the breakfast, as they were ordering, guess what? The electricity failed!
They were left with a choice of sandwiches or ploughman’s both we learned later were excellent and certainly better than the pub’s zero offering.
After lunch we had to move as the moorings we were on were restricted to 48 hours and our 48 hours expired at 3pm, we left at 2:50pm. We were not going far, around five miles where we planned to hunker down for three or four days while bad weather went through.
When we woke on Saturday morning the rain was “persisting” down which, according to the “Met Office” would last until Wednesday.
Oh well it’ll help to fill the canals.
