Oxford Canal, Br.155 near Cropredy; Wednesday 1st July
We made an early start in order to avoid some of the sun; arriving at Grants lock, a fairly deep one at 9’6” BW had erected some warning notices since our last visit. Four years ago we had pumped a boat out that was going toward Banbury. The owner had gone to lift the paddles to drain the lock and his wife decided to wait in the bridge hole. Owing to the pressure and volume of water released caused by opening the paddles; the boat was drawn rapidly forward and hit the gate. The water was forced into the front deck through the drain holes and ran inside as the front doors were open. When we arrived, the boat was listing badly to the right and had 9 inches of water on the floor at the back end. The pump that I used moved 4 gallons per minute; the drill was running for almost 2 hours.
We stopped first near Morrisons for Myra to stock up on essentials as the next place of any size will be Leamington and Warwick. We moved up closed to the town centre for some general stuff, and for Myra to have her blood pressure checked by a Doctor; the result to be forwarded to her Doctor in Buxton. We had a brief look around Banbury, adding some reading matter from the charity shops.
The White Lion Hotel looked interesting and had been a busy and prosperous coaching inn during the first part of the 18th century. Most of the stables and associated areas now formed a small shopping walk.
By the time that we had finished and were ready to move off, it was 2pm. It was also very hot, and a boater was racing to get his ropes undone above Banbury lock and move off before we had opened the gate. He had his boat right across the canal as he stopped to pick up his wife from the lift bridge, causing the oncoming boat to do a crash stop, then he had a go at the other boater for not waiting! Unbelievable.
That is one of the reasons that we prefer to travel early; for some reason, the idiots do not seem to be early risers. Perhaps they have difficulty telling the time. We caught up with them at the next lock. They had an Aluminium narrowboat, and they were of the ‘lift one paddle an eighth at a time, then repeat with the other’ school. By the time that they had finished, another boat was waiting behind us. We had some interesting conversations with the hirers as we waited at the next two locks.
We tied up at Br.155 south of Cropredy; the maximum temperature in the saloon was 38 degrees, which only started to drop at 9pm.
We will start and tie up earlier tomorrow.
2009 Totals: 296 Locks – 618 miles – 14 Bus pass uses
