Canal Boat — January 2018

canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat January 2018 53

situation was resolved by rebuilding the

junction at Hawkesbury.

A splendid cast-iron junction towpath

bridge faces a boatman’s pub and there is

an engine house that once supplied the

Coventry Canal with water pumped from

nearby mines, reusing a Newcomen

engine (an early form of steam engine)

that pre-dated the canal. The engine went

to a museum in Dartmouth but the engine

house is still there, surrounded by

modern buildings.

The junction became a meeting place

for boats waiting for orders to load from

nearby collieries. The working boat

people called the junction Sutton Stop

after the Sutton family of 19th century

lock-keepers.

One notable Hawkesbury character was

Joe Skinner, who was known as ‘the last of

the Number Ones’ (owner boatmen) who

preferred to work with horses and mules

in the traditional manner. Joe was born in

1893 into a boating family and spent all his

life on the canals. He married Rose and for

years they delivered coal from the

Warwickshire coalfields to Oxford. Their

boat Friendship stayed in their possession

for the rest of their lives (and is now an

exhibit in the Boat Museum at Ellesmere

Port); after they stopped carrying they

were still to be seen moored at

Hawkesbury (see picture) until Joe died in

1975 aged 82, and Rose the following year

aged 77.

Now the working boatmen have all

gone, but the junction remains a busy

boating centre for visitors exploring two

popular waterways.

9 4 MILES / 1 LOCK 10 HAWKESBURY

ANSTY COVENTRY CANAL TO FRADLEY

COVENTRY CANAL TO COVENTRY

BRINKLOW CASTLE

You won’t see any

castle buildings, as

this 12th century

motte-and-bailey

was probably made

of wood, but the earthworks are impressive, it’s

an easy walk from the canal at Bridge 34, and

you can combine it with a visit to Brinklow village.

CB

Braunston

Willoughby

Onley Barby

Rugby

Hillmorton

Newbold-on-Avon

Brinklow

Ansty

Bedworth

Hawkesbury Junction

Sutton’s Stop Lock

Coventry

Brownsover

Clifton

Southern Grand Union

Canal to London

Coventry Canal

to Coventry

Coventry Canal

to Fazeley

and Fradley

Newbold

Tunnel

Hillmorton Locks

Napton Junction

Braunston Turn

Southern Oxford Canal

to Oxford

Northern Grand Union Canal

to Birmingham

Stretton

DISTANCES: Southern Oxford Canal

Braunston to Hawkesbury 23 miles 4 locks.

Entire canal Oxford to Hawkesbury

77 miles 42 locks.

LOCATION: The northern Oxford

Canal links the southern Oxford Canal and

the southern Grand Union Canal at

Braunston Turn to the Coventry Canal at

Hawkesbury Junction

SEE ALSO

The towpath bridge at Hawkesbury Junction today... ...and Joe & Rose Skinner there in the 1970s