Saturday 18th January 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 1

Saturday 18th January 2014 Oxford Canal Walk Ramble 1

Starting from near to Hawkesbury Junction and walking  to Stretton-under-Fosse.

We started off from the same place as we did on Coventry Canal walk (9th January 2014), but this time walked in the opposite direction. In no time at all we were at Hawkesbury Junction, otherwise known as Sutton Stop (after the first lock keeper here). It is here that we negotiated a couple of fine cast iron bridges to get onto the Oxford Canal towpath proper. Boaters have to do a tight 'hairpin' bend manoeuvre if coming from the north to join the Oxford Canal or vice versa. There is a stop lock here as there is a 6 inch difference in height between the two canals. Also, we saw the disused steam engine house that once housed 'Lady Godiva', a Newcomen-type engine that pumped water from a well into the canal until 1913.

So, off we set along the Oxford Canal and appreciated the company of Sue, Jem, John, Julie, Dot, Margaret and Clive on this winter's day walk that was decidedly wet underfoot. We passed the signpost telling us it was 77 miles to Oxford and began to snake along this straightened stretch of narrow waterway that was once a busy trading route for transporting goods, particularly coal, from pits near here to London. Now it seemed in need of a little bit of TLC and we didn't see one boat on the move throughout the walk. We did see an interesting garden and had to avert our eyes as it seemed that someone was having a bath. Apparently the mannequins are dressed differently; sometimes as cowboys, other times as police.

For the first part of the walk others features clearly visible and audible  were the M6 (and later the M69) motorways, large pylons and substations. What once was very much a rural backwater is now on the outskirts of Coventry.
One of the dead-end spurs of canal left from straightening the very wiggly 'Brindley' contour canal in the 1820s and the building of the M6 is now used by the Coventry Cruising Club (others by narrowboat hire companies further along).
 Instead of hugging the 300' contour line around the hills the canal now goes across aqueducts and embankments have been built up. One of the embankments near here collapsed in 1963 spilling tons of sand and clay.

We walked into Ansty past a gaggle of geese and diverted from the canal a short distance to The Rose and Crown PH for our picnic lunch and a hot drink or two. Feeling refreshed we continued on, picking our way through deep muddy patches in places, but making good progress.

 We passed Ansty Hall, now a Macdonald 4 star hotel that looks down on the canal and went across Hopsgood Aqueduct, another newer straight part of the canal. At this point the London Euston to Birmingham mainline railway is very close to the canal on the opposite bank and
many Virgin pendolino type trains passed by.

Then it was under the M6 motorway and the end, with the Rose Narrowboats base, came into view.

We  ended the 7.75mile walk, then went to the local Farm Shop in Stretton-under-Fosse for a cuppa before making our way home.

Thursday 9th January 2014 Coventry Canal walk from near Hawksbury Junction into Coventry centre.

Thursday 9th January 2014 Coventry Canal Ramble.

We, that is John, Julie, Linda, Margaret, Sue, Jem and us, walked along the Coventry Canal from near Hawkesbury Junction, the 5.5 miles to its end basin. Our walk finished  very close to the city centre, and as a prelude to walking the Oxford Canal we wanted to explore the Coventry area.
It was cloudy and chilly to start with but, during the walk, we had interludes of bright sunshine and no rain.  We went through many puddles along the towpath but none were too deep.
Early on we went under the M6, which wasn't noisy at all, and saw, on the opposite bank, the imposing, 32,000-seater Ricoh football stadium. This has had a short life with mixed fortunes. It did host a few Olympics football games in 2012 but, at present, Coventry City home matches are played at Sixfields Stadium, Northampton.
In the 1990s the whole length of our canal walk was developed into an outdoor art trail with over 26 pieces of sculpture as part of a regeneration scheme. We spotted many of these pieces, associated signs and information boards and even sat on one!

While going over  the aqueduct we noticed  the fast flow of the River Sowe, which meanders through Coventry before joining the River Avon at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire.

By some allotments it seemed that Santa hadn't got stuck up a chimney but up a tree. I hope that there weren't too many disappointed children.

Here was a little bit of green; mostly we saw evidence of Coventry's industrial past and the sprawl of urbanisation. Sadly, but realising we were seeing it at the worst time of the year, much of the canal and sides showed an unkempt appearance, bareness with rubbish and neglect.

It was here, on The Snake in the Grass by Lizzie Alageswaran and other artists, that we sat and ate our picnics.

A more rural scene when approaching another bend in this low budget 'contour' type canal without locks and on this day with very little in the way of traffic: one boat moving and a few swans and wildfowl.

We were intrigued by this building as tall, industrial at the upper level but more domestic lower down and with so many chimneys. Later we realised that they were the Cash's 'Topshops' built in 1857 for the silk ribbon weavers. Skilled workers were housed below the light, airy factory above and, the enlightened Quaker employers provided allotments, and a nearby park. The scheme wasn't fully finished. Some houses were hit by bombs during WW2, but the remaining buildings are listed and mostly flats. Cash's still make name tape ribbons, bookmarks and woven cards and are based on the outskirts of Coventry.

To commemorate Coventry's car industry, here is another artwork on the trail, Daimler Heritage Marker by Robert Crutchley. In 1897, close to here, the first car  factory in the UK started production. By the canal, there is a large area that has been cleared, awaiting development. Courtaulds the manufacturers of artificial silk, Rayon and other plastics and textiles including carbon fibre, also had a large base around here and it is hard to comprehend the scale of industrial operations there must have been at one time so close to the centre of the city.

This is Electric Wharf where there was once a very early, coal-powered power station serving the nearby industries and communities. The buildings have been converted into eco-houses and flats. Some industrial features i.e. steel girders, brickwork have been retained, old materials reused and there are green roofs, solar panels etc. Large letters are on the side of the buildings and apparently spell words such as 'Turbine', Edison' and 'Generator', but the only one easily recognisable was 'Depot'. A 4-bed townhouse sells for about £185k.

We passed another heritage marker artwork named The Journeyman by Stephen Hitchin.  It is intended to commemorate the anonymous canal builders, the many ‘navvies’ whose hard work created the canal in the eighteenth century with only picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. It is situated by the low, brick bridge that all boats have to negotiate if entering the terminal canal basin.
A statue of James Brindley by James Butler is within the Y-shaped Canal Basin. Brindley was an influential pioneer for the UK canal system but only worked on the Coventry Canal for a short time before getting the sack. We had a cuppa in one of the newer units created when the wharves and warehouses when re-developed in the 1990s. Several boats from Valley Cruises were moored nearby and we had a group photo taken by a helpful worker on a smoking break.

Next time, we will start from Hawkesbury Junction and  walk along the Oxford Canal towards Oxford and the River Thames. So, by the end of June we hope to say that we have completed, in sections, towpath rambling between Coventry and Oxford.