Wilmcote

By now we'd reacclimatised to canal life and cruised happily on up the locks to moorings near the little village of Wilmcote. It wasn't windy so squeezing in to the tight locks was a lot easier. If narrowboat groups on Facebook are anything to go by, the locks are notorious, with several boats getting wedged so badly they had to call the River Canal Rescue to winch them out! Like the crumbled towpath, it seems the lock walls are shifting inwards over time.

Wilmcote is famous for being the birthplace of Mary Arden; Shakespeare's mother. She was born and raised on a farm which is now owned by the Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust. It is run as a working Tudor farm and visitor destination that the Stratford Sightseeing bus stops at. Arriving just after noon we took the short walk into the village and the Mary Arden pub, looking for some lunch. It was quiet and friendly. There was no food on but the bar tender encouraged us to visit the village store and get some food to bring in. The store seemed like a real community hub and had some delicious oven baked pasties. Unfortunately the vegan ones had sold out, but Vicky bought some Nobby's Nuts from behind the bar and we tucked in with our drinks.

The pasties were so good we returned to Wilmcote Village Stores and reserved some for the following day. We brought the dogs with us and ate while sitting on a bench under a tree on a little green, before returning to the pub for a drink and some doggy biscuits 😋

Back on board and scrolling through Facebook we saw a photo of Rainboat on the boat builder's page. Apparently Cain Narrowboats' latest build, 'Dazzling Jewel' had passed when we were out and sent the photo to Lainy Cain!Läs mer