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.