Tuesday 21st May
A nice relaxing start to the day, with a cup of tea and a crossword, was shattered by the arrival of a Rose Narrow boat (them again) scraping all the way down the side of us. I stuck my head out of the hatch (must have put the fear of Christ up him, I hadn’t been up long) and said ‘Oi, what are you doing?’ He said, ‘Sorry, I had to avoid that boat coming the other way.’ I said, ‘You could have possibly tried to avoid us as well if you wanted!’ There was plenty of room where we were moored up for 2 widebeams to pass us let alone 2 narrow boats!
We set off on today’s cruise about 8-30 am and were going to get water at the old BW yard at Hartshill but when we got there there was a chap moored up there already – painting the side of his boat! We decided to carry on to the sanitary station at the top of Atherstone locks. We arrived at the top of the 11 lock flight at 10-15 am and as there was a boat just about to come out of the top lock and a boat behind us we gave the sanitary station a miss and commenced our descent.
On the way down the flight we met – a lady coming up who was extolling the virtues of the butchers at Polesworth. Apparently his sausages have won awards and his sausage rolls and bacon are also very good as are his pork chops and his chickens! We also met a man coming up who was using a magnet in the lock to try and find windlasses, which a notice in his window indicated, he would sell later. While this man was searching for ‘hidden treasure’ the chap who was hoping to come up next (after we went down) had arrived and was giving him some stick about charging too much for something he had found for free.
Meanwhile the lock was full and I asked if it was ready to open yet (I was on the non towpath side) he then made a comment to the affect that it would be if ‘magnet man’s’ wife would nudge their boat forward so the gate would be easier for him to open. I thought he was a bit rude but neither ‘magnet man’ or his wife seemed bothered.
The rest of the flight passed off uneventfully and we did all 11 locks in exactly 2 hours. We pulled into the sanitary station at Bradley Green Bridge where we had to wait for a short time while someone already using the tap finished with it. Just before we got there we passed this morning’s Rose Narrow boat, supposedly moored up, fiddling with his back rope, his back end was half way across the canal and his front end was barely tied up either!
After filling and emptying we travelled a bit further and moored up just downstream of the railway bridge on the outskirts of Polesworth. We walked in to the village where we went to the Spar shop for milk, bread and a paper, the greengrocers for a huge cauliflower and some other veg and The Red Lion where, sadly, they only had Doombar, not one of our favourite beers but very well kept nonetheless.
After the pub we checked out the fantastic award winning butchers, as earlier recommended by the lady on the locks. We got some of his sausages and a cooked ham hock. He hadn’t got any beef dripping unfortunately and although he did his best to persuade us we didn’t buy one of his wife’s home made steak pies, maybe when we come back this way next week. As we were leaving he gave us his last two sausage rolls, free, bonus. They were lovely too especially as we hadn’t had any lunch and the pub had run out of crisps and nuts!
Tomorrow we are going to meet Mick and Cathy at Fazeley Junction. We decided on Fazeley as opposed to Hopwas because they would have to come nearly to Fazeley to wind to go back to Willington anyway and if we went to Hopwas we would have to go all the way to Huddlestone to wind to come back up here. If we meet at Fazeley we can all wind to our hearts content at the junction!
