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Warwick District

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    • PodróżnikGreat Britain
      Dzień 7

      Warwick Castle

      20 czerwca 2013, Anglia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

      Warwick Castle was the first glimpse I got into the medieval period and the importance of strategic location. Warwick castle is built on a small hillock with steep sides and a moat which would have made it very difficult for foreign raiders.
      It is made out of stone and is a imposing castle both in size and with its battlements.

      Warwick Castle is situated in the town of Warwick, on a sandstone bluff at a bend of the River Avon. The river, which runs below the castle on the east side, has eroded the rock the castle stands on, forming a cliff. The river and cliff form natural defences. When construction began in 1068, four houses belonging to the Abbot of Coventry were demolished to provide space. The castle's position made it strategically important in safeguarding the Midlands against rebellion.       Czytaj więcej

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    • WanderinghandsJuly 2017 - United Kingdom
      Dzień 17

      Here, there and everywhere!

      20 lipca 2017, Anglia ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

      Today was a transit day but we still managed to fill it with a variety of stops.
      We loaded up the car and left York behind at the same time that the rain began.
      Not a very enjoyable drive for the next 1 1/2 hours with the rain but we arrived at Sherwood Forest in pursuit of Robin Hood armed with umbrellas and waterproof gear.
      Although no Robin in sight we did find the Major Oak which is suffering from old age and is supported by many upright poles and ropes.
      Next stop another 1 1/2 hours later, which sent us slightly off route was Rieker Factory Outlet (shoes). Bargain time, the shoes were at least between 1/2 and 1/5th of the price in Aus. I walked out with four pairs (one of which was for Phil) which now takes my shoe purchase total in the UK to seven pairs, including the pair for Phil. Packing to go home is going to be interesting. And, the rain had just faded away - at last.
      Just under another hour of driving and we find ourselves parked three car spaces from the enrty to Warwick Castle with dry skies. Premium parking!
      This complex is huge and quite interesting covering several acres. The setup, furnishings and stories in the great hall are extremely well done.
      You can also get some great views of the area and town from The Mound or the Castle Walls. You can see why families could spend a day here.
      We did the dungeon tour and it appears that all dungeon tours follow the same script, in some skits, word for word. I will never be seen at another one in my lifetime and Phil is now aware of this.
      We departed at closing time and only had a half hour drive to Stratford Upon Avon where we will spend the next two nights.
      Found a lovely old pub, the oldest pub in Stratford - The Garrick Inn, with a bar area smaller than my bedroom.
      I'm very pleased to say that I probably had the best Pimms here that I have had anywhere., sorry Sharon!
      And the dinner choice was Indian.

      Phil - No Robin Hood but at least I can say I've been here and can see how easy it would have been for Robin and his men to hide in the forest. Especially in their trendy green outfits.
      Just when you think you are castled out, you go to Warwick Castle. It's huge and well spread out. They have really good wax models in most of the rooms and there is an audio story told. I did over 500 steps up the towers, so I am keeping up the average.
      I had to get petrol today. The guy behind the counter spoke to me and I had no idea what he said. Three times I said pardon, and eventually he pointed to a loyalty card he was flogging. We are all speaking our brand of the english language.
      The waiters last night, and tonight don't understand my sense of humour. Wendy says I just should say yes and no, from now on.       Czytaj więcej

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    • chris RoaldPelangi's New Home
      Dzień 14

      I see no ships

      9 października 2022, Anglia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

      Two boats pass our mooring, heading up the Hatton flight together. One of them we recognise from Burghfield Island in Reading! At this time of year, the chances of setting off for the flight at the same time as another boat in the same direction are pretty slim.

      As we're in no hurry, we find that raising just one paddle to fill each lock saves us a lot of physical effort. As we count off each of the sixteen wide-locks remaining to the top, there are probably a dozen or more walkers and their humans out for a Sunday stroll, but no boats are catching us up or appearing coming down! We have to do the Hatton together, solo, so to speak.

      Every now and then a family or a couple stop to watch, or ask questions about Pelangi, or how the lock works or where we're going. One local lady walking the towpath with her dog quips to Jo, "you've got a lot of steps to go up, my dear!" Chris is sure he can see someone now working the paddle or gate about three locks behind us... but it's like hallucinating: we 'see' what we desperately hope to see!
      There's a sign at lock eleven - Hatton Middle Lock - which Chris is religiously snapping 'to prove' that we were here, and not cheating by taking the nearby M40 or something! We plod on...
      Eventually we come to some canalside buildings (CRT owned), that as well as housing workshops, serve to welcome visitors to the Hatton, and would, in peak holiday period, be busy with Gongoozlers - boat/canal watchers - observing many boats going up and down the locks, sometimes with a number of lock-volunteers in attendance. Not today, though; the place is deserted, except for us.
      At last we're nearing the summit, and just as we're completing the penultimate lock, there's a boat coming down from the top lock. The irony of fate's timing couldn't be more frustrating! Nevertheless, we're about to snap our picture of the Hatton Top Lock sign to, er, prove blah blah, and celebrate being here again - fifteen years after making the flight for the first time (descending in our old boat, Jenny May), we're back, triumphant at bringing Pelangi up the flight solo, in exactly four hours!
      A Country and Western not-very-good-singer playing loudly in the canalside cafe's garden doesn't dampen our spirits - we use the boaters' recycling facilities to dispose of a very full bag of beverage bottles and moor up for the day just before Shrewley Tunnel (433 yards)... a very good day we feel, all things considered.       Czytaj więcej

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    • chris RoaldPelangi's New Home
      Dzień 13

      Hatton ahead!

      8 października 2022, Anglia ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

      North of, and parallel with, the Grand Union Canal, flows the the River Leam close to the centre of Leamington Spa. The river is surrounded by parks and green spaces for much of its course through the town - which we found attractive with wide streets and plenty of independent food traders.

      Now we are heading for Warwick, and though our waterway guide's map seems to show Leamington Spa and Warwick merging, we are seeing green fields, colourful gardens backing onto the canal, and some interesting waterway features. The Chiltern mainline now passing under our short aqueduct, is the same line we walked under on our way to the restaurant yesterday evening - either some ascending locks have been mysteriously erased from our memory, or the railway has quite a downward gradient over a relatively short distance to Warwick!
      Even more interesting is our entering a longer aqueduct that crosses the Avon River valley - the river we'll be joining in no less than 64 lock-miles after ascending 150 feet of the Hatton Flight's twenty-one locks and navigating half the Stratford Canal southwards! Jo has read that in the not too distant past, an enquiry was set up to consider "extending navigation to Leamington Spa and in conjunction with the River Leam and four locks, link into the Grand Union Canal", but which "for the time being at least..." has been rejected.
      Youch! We still have a lot of paddles to raise and lower between here and Stratford!!

      Jo took a bit of a tumble a few days back, stepping off Pelangi onto the towpath back on the Oxford near Napton. Her leg is healing, but still hurts if she walks much between locks, so for now we are just completing the first five locks of the Hatton Flight and mooring-up for the day to give her more time to rest.
      Tomorrow we hope to either have other boaters to share the flight with, or find some CRT lock volunteers helping with the ascent. Either way, we intend to take it slowly and gently. All the better to enjoy the amazing views back down this grand canal.       Czytaj więcej

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    • chris RoaldPelangi's New Home
      1
      Dzień 15

      "Working Museum"

      10 października 2022, Anglia ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

      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"!       Czytaj więcej

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    • chris RoaldPelangi's New Home
      Dzień 16

      Stratford bound

      11 października 2022, Anglia ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

      Just before dinner yesterday evening, someone living near Bucket Lock kindly came down the towpath to warn us that our short pound could empty overnight due to leaky gates below. We untie and move below the lock to a much longer pound.
      All is well in the morning though; we could have been listing badly by now if we'd stayed above! Now it's a bright, sunny morning in the most glorious Worcestershire countryside and we notice, when we're in a lock with Pelangi's engine off, how quiet it is.

      After three woodland-surrounded locks in quick succession, this stretch of canal has some straighter, longer, lock-free sections passing through agricultural land dotted with varied livestock farms and one strangely out of the way narrowboats marina. Tranquility indeed!
      A longer aqueduct takes us over the grandly named Tyseley South Junction To Bearley West Junction Branch railway line, but sadly, no trains at this moment - will dream tonight of express steam trains passing under Pelangi... (wot, on a branch line? !).

      We're passing the village of Wilmcote which has some very attractive canalside properties, along with 'Mary Arden's House' - mistakenly thought to be the home of Shakespeare' mother; it's now known she lived thirty yards away at Glebe Farm!
      Just yards south of the intriguingly named Canada Bridge is the Wilmcote Flight of eleven locks and we decide to attempt the first eight and then moor up, tackling the remainder tomorrow before the last six steeper locks into Stratford on Avon.
      There have been maybe four of five narrowboats pass us today, including a privately-hired trip boat, but we are pleasantly surprised to find two CRT lock-volunteers on the flight, and they help us through the next six locks. One of our volunteers is actually a CRT employee over from Bedford who normally works from home covering call-centre duties. The other is retired, living in Stratford. We are really grateful of their help, as many of this "Working Museum's" locks are proving heavy work indeed.       Czytaj więcej

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