Canal Boat — January 2018

56 January 2018 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk

LIVEABOARD

S

poiled. That’s what I’d been.
Utterly spoiled. And by what? One
word: width. Oh, and another one:
height. Actually, now I think of it,
all three dimensions.
That’s rivers for you. Seven days
chugging serenely up Shakespeare’s Avon
with a further couple of days before that
down the Severn and I’d become
accustomed to channels so vast that you
could couldn’t see from one side to the
other! (I may be exaggerating slightly)
It certainly felt like that once I’d gone
back onto the canal at Stratford,
specifically when I moved off the mooring
to exit the basin and head North. If you
haven’t done it before then be aware that
there’s a very low road bridge overhead
with the passage just wide enough for one
narrowbeam craft.
After my river travels this suddenly felt
weirdly cramped. I breathed in, ducked,
and made it, thankfully having
remembered to take down the TV aerial
before I set off. That bridge is closely
followed, round a corner, by another one
with the first lock on the other side.

Mooring to go and set that lock, I

grounded on the shallow depth, causing

me to recall wistfully the many feet of

unfettered water that had been below the

hull only a day or so before.

How the lower Stratford likes to tease

boaters coming off the Avon! Those low

bridges kept on coming, the single locks

were tight and for good measure a

smattering of narrow brick bridges also

pepper the canal, my fellow boaters’

surprise at the tightness also being

apparent, largely from the big chunks

taken out of the brickwork.

I’m not moaning, honest I’m not; it was

just a shock and a reminder that I needed

to switch back to “canal” mode and steer

with a bit more precision than of late.

Soon enough, like riding a bicycle, it all

came back and a normal level of

navigational competence was restored

(you can make up your own mind as to

what that level is).

Let’s mention those locks again briefly.

A single gate spans the bottom rather than

the more conventional two half-gates. I’d

read that this made the canal rather

awkward but as far as I was concerned

this was a delight. Being a solo boater, the

fewer gates you have to muck about with

After the wide open spaces of the river Avon, David Johns

returns to more familiar (and narrower!) territory

Heading for

the homestead

Mooring at Wilmcote

Moored at Saltisford again