Rowington

After a short tunnel and three lock-free miles we're at the H-shaped junction that connects the wide Grand Union Canal, that we're now leaving, with the very narrow Stratford Canal. The GUC continues north to Birmingham and as we navigate the connecting cut of the junction, the sign points left for Stratford-on-Avon and right for Worcester - which we did five years ago - we're turning left!

As we head for the first lock south, a CRT volunteer walks down from the Worcester-heading flight of locks and helps us fill our lock. He tells Jo that he came on shift at 11 o'clock after arriving back from his holiday in Greece at midnight! He asks Jo how far we're planning to go today and Jo replies "'til 4 o'clock", which he thinks is as good a plan as any.
There are plenty of oddities and peculiarities to spot on this canal - you can't miss them really - but it feels comforting to be back on narrow locks again; only one gate to open each end, and with just six to eight turns of the windlass, the paddle is open or closed. The nagging arm and shoulder ache attached to the wide locks is miraculously gone!
We're arriving at a lock now that has a lock-keeper's cottage right beside it, with an unusual 'barrel-shaped' roof. Historically, the canal builders (called Navvies) were often the road or footpath bridge-builders too, usually producing hump-back bridges of brick, shaped in an arch to support the road or path above. When directed to build a cottage beside the lock, they built its roof in the only way they knew how... so nearly all the canalside cottages in this section have an arched roof!
By far the most novel canal structure here though is the 'split bridge'. Never heard of it? Neither had we until we first read of them in our Nicholson waterways guide...
Two centuries ago, the only way to propel a 70 foot narrowboat up and down the canal network, was by horsepower; every boat was connected to a rope connected to a horse, pony or mule to tow you. But slow as that was compared with today's mechanical engines, what was even slower was when boat and horse meets an arched bridge where the towpath passes to the left or right of the bridge. The horse has to be unhitched from the boat and taken around the bridge whilst the often laden boat slowly passes beneath said bridge.
So here on the Stratford a clever solution was devised - a bridge with a narrow slit in the middle of its arch through which a rope could pass, and thus No Stopping of boat or horse. Clever, eh?
Today, there are still examples of this unique type of bridge, and we're passing under one right now... though with an engine, not a horse. As our lock-volunteer explained earlier, "this canal is a working museum"!Read more