Only six locks on the North Stratford

Friday, 06 January 2012 18:03

We moved off the Grand Union Canal in brilliant sunshine, turning onto the Lapworth Arm/Branch under the bridge. It was time for a cruise on another waterway, the North Stratford Canal and more locks. 

Turning onto the Arm

The Arm, Basins and Link all make an interesting explore - but today we only stopped for the sani-station, water etc. It was to be a slow journey ......

Perhaps I shall come back to Lapworth on a blog as we took a walk around whilst we had been moored up for a few days, but now we had a few locks to do. 

The Lapworth Arm ahead of us

The sani-station can be accessed from the Arm (as we did) or the South Stratford (via the Lapworth Link). Rubbish is beside Lock 21 on the South Stratford and water is above Lock 19 - complicated eh?

Our Journey Map through Lapworth, courtesy of Waterexplorer and Google (click pic to open)

For anyone wanting to go down the South Stratford it is possible to take the Link to the left below Lock 20 thus avoiding Locks 20 and a very tight turn into 21. The Link is very narrow and could be tricky to get into though. Lock 20 was bad enough from the mooring, but I managed it without touching!

So did you spot Lock 20 in the map above?

We went through it after visiting the sani-staion from the Arm

The house called Badgers is visible from Lock 20 too and when in Lock 19 Min Y Don Cottage looks very attractive across the upper basin.

Badgers

Min Y Don

So, having done all the necessaries, it was nearly lunch time and we had a few more locks to do. We had identified a place to moor that we both remembered (or so we thought) a few locks up. John had a dicey shoulder and is in a fair bit of pain, but he hoped the exercise would help. 

We got to Lock 17, this is the view from it to lock 16

The by-wash was pretty fierce, it drops from a pound above. The pounds were widened to give a greater volume of water in the flight and there certainly was plenty today! As you can see we had lost the sun and it had become grey and was getting colder.

In Lock 16, John decided to do a button repair. Our front button has been slightly askew for a long time. I tend to take Epiphany right up to the top gates and sit in tick over against the gate whilst John raises the paddles. This stops her bouncing around and lots of throttle to control her in the narrow locks. 

Button repair

He took a link out and refastened it - nice and straight, but still "breakable" in case we get stuck on a gate. 

In Lock 16, showing the pound and by-wash

Bridge 34 is above Lock 15 and we hoped to find our mooring - but we had misremembered!

Bridge 34, Bird in Hand Bridge, or Mill Lane Bridge

Yes, there are 48H moorings, but it is not the attractive place we both had in mind! Anno Domini has a lot to answer for. There was another narrowboat already here, but we moored well back from him. 

Moorings above, plenty of room

We were thinking of a mooring above bridge 31, another nine locks further up - but John was ready for a rest and some pain killers. What a long, short cruise!

North Stratford Canal, Kingswood Junction to Bird in Hand Bridge 34
2 hours 22 minutes, 0.57 miles, 6 locks