Winter barging, on “The Squire”

Perhaps you remember from our last blog, we arrived in England and welcomed to the Fi and Adrian Sailing family a narrowboat called “The Squire”. This was to be our home for the 2 months over December 2022 and January 2023. Last year we spent the same time period on another narrowboat called “The Earl” and Bernie loved it so much, we wanted to give him the same experience again. Plus for us, its a nice break from sailing, but still presents lots of opportunities for adventures.

We began our trip unpacking and settling in to the boat, getting to know the ins and outs and making friends with it. We started at a stretch of canal near Fenny Compton in the middle of England.

Time to push off! We have to reverse up to the winding hole (a large space dotted along the canals where these long boats can turn around) which presented its own challenges as the first maneuver of the trip. All done though and we were on our way north. Quickly reaching Napton on the Hill, we make a left turn on to the Grand Union Canal bound for Birmingham. The Grand Union links Birmingham and London and was a busy canal in its day, shipping all manner of goods and fuel between these two cities.

We are reminded fairly quickly that this section of the Grand Union has been built to accommodate wide beam boats, and therefore have double width locks. Our skills from the previous year were quickly brought to the fore, and Adrian was navigating into the large locks with me only needing to open 1 of the gates on either side. Phew! The lock doors can be upwards of 3 tonnes so I was happy to not have to open 4 doors every time. We navigate towards Long Itchington, and enjoy the scenery, locks and the local watering holes.

After a few days of this pattern, we find ourselves in Royal Leamington Spa. I used to have to go to work here on occasion so it was nice to see it from a different perspective, and also discover some fantastic places to provision, and enjoy a hearty English breakfast.

By this time we had completed the Calcutt locks (3 locks), the Stockton lock flight (8 locks), the Bascote locks and a number of others, totaling 25. We had achieved this over the best part of a week, and were feeling prepared to tackle the famous (infamous) Hatton Lock flight. The Hatton Lock flight rises narrowboats up 45m in less than 2 miles and consists of 21 locks. Its grueling work, and was not made easy for us as we buddied up with a single handed narrowboater (so it was a little slower) and every single lock was set against us. Plus we started at about 2pm.

Into the afternoon we went, setting the locks, driving the boats in, closing gates, filling up the locks, on to the next. The snow had settled on the ground and so the towpath and lock gates were slippery to walk on, the dog enjoyed running away from time to time and the night rolled on in. Granted the night time here is about 4PM. Onwards we went, up and up and up and the hours passed by. Every time we finished a lock, it seemed another came out of the gloom. It felt like it was never going to end. They call this flight the stairway to heaven as it is so arduous. Eventually, after running backwards and forwards, setting and resetting locks, grinding paddles, opening and closing closing 3 tonne gates, we reached the top at about 7:30pm. It was dark, we were exhausted, and we closed up the Squire, stoked up the fireplace and settled in for a beer, and a pre made meal heated up in the oven. We’d made in total about 2.5 miles that day and expended all our energy! We planned to explore the area the following day, rather than go and tackle another section of canal.

We weren’t disappointed! The area around the locks is gorgeous, and there is a cute cafe and a pub. Happy.

Onwards towards Birmingham however, and we find ourselves cracking through ice all of a sudden. Arriving in the area of Solihull, we find a few more wonderful English pubs, some good places to provision and stunning countryside.

The ice seemed to be getting thicker. The day we left to head into Birmingham, we were cracking through inch thick plates of ice. It is loud and it is hard to steer as the ice pushes the boat around to wherever it has split. We manage this by having 1 person steer, and the other person at the front running from side to side getting the boat to rock to crack the ice relatively evenly. Soon we find the stunning English countryside being replaced by industrial buildings, graffiti, and a lot of litter that speaks to the nightly recreational activities in this less than salubrious area of outer Birmingham.

Dog safely locked inside so he didn’t accidentally get stabbed with a syringe, or eat some human poo, we navigated through the 25 locks that would get us to the centre of Birmingham. This was not without a stop in a VERY brightly lit (read safe) area next to one of the universities here for a sleep overnight one evening.

The locks into Birmingham took us under huge bridges and under buildings and certainly had the air of Peaky Blinders. We saw deals being done, smelled the local relief points, and skipped over broken glass and drug paraphernalia. Eventually, the muck and darkness made way to more gentrified buildings and a cute towpath leading to the top of the locks and the centre. Gas Street Basin is the famous centre of canals in Birmingham, and would be our stop over for a few days. And then a few more days, as the ice got thicker and thicker.

After about a week, the temperatures has risen enough for the ice to again be navigable, and we said goodbye to Birmingham, keen to have some “field” time. For Christmas, we are heading for Stratford Upon Avon to explore, restock, and appreciate the countryside after so much city time.

Heading south, we find ourselves on the Stratford Upon Avon canal. A beautiful stretch of canal winding its way through the countryside, dotted with locks here and there, but nothing as massive as those Hatton Locks. We enjoy time moored in fields, and eventually end up just outside Stratford Upon Avon.

It is Christmas eve, so we quickly find ourselves a lovely pub for lunch, and also head to Waitrose for our turkey and Christmas trimmings. We stop off at Will’s birthplace and have a great wander around town. It would be great to spend a little more time here outside of the holiday season, however we need to get going back towards where we started as the winter closures would mean we would be stuck here, so Christmas day comes, we cast off the mooring lines and head out of Stratford.

Christmas dinner is cooked while moored up in a quiet field, and we plan how to get out and through the Hatton Locks again before the closures in a few days.

We didn’t get too far before we found the canal was empty making it hard to navigate. Some investigation showed the paddles at both ends of the lock were slightly open allowing the water to drain. It took a couple of hours to let enough water through from a large pound a few locks above and we were on our way again.

Retracing our steps, we find ourselves at our turn off point. Adrian navigates the Squire through a 7ft hole in someone’s garden, which leads out of the Stratford Upon Avon Canal to the Grand Union Canal and eventually, that huge Hatton Lock flight. Would I have come up the Hatton Lock flight if I knew what it was like, and that we would have to also come back down it, yes probably. Its a great workout. This time however, we mean business and start the locks at a reasonable time in the morning, and even manage to enlist the help of one of our local friends who came along and opened the last 5 or so locks for us (of 21). We felt like professionals at this point! We were done and dusted mid afternoon, and enjoyed a little wander around Warwick with our friend, and naturally had a few beers at the pub.

BUT – we are still not past the closures. We are on track though, and the next day after a bit of a sleep in, we head on through the next dozen or so locks towards Royal Leamington Spa and past the closures. Phew! We have avoided making the same mistake that we made last year where we got stuck behind the winter closures and had to organise to have the boat trucked over to another canal. Oops.

It is just outside Leamington that we have organised to have guests! Friends from the US have organised to join us and experience what is means to live the canal boat life. And we have some fun plans to show them what it is all about! First stop, 8 locks! Followed by a pub meal. It was so much easier having 4 people on the boat with 3 people able to work the locks. A lot quicker too, and so we found ourselves quite quickly at our designated pub for dinner, and predinner drinks.

Our friends were keen to experience more, and we wanted to take them on a journey through the countryside to Braunston, a cute town that includes a haunted tunnel. We spend New Years quietly, in a field of course, and plan to complete the tunnel on New Years day.

The tunnel is interesting as it is a little wobbly. The construction teams started at each end, then realised they were off by a few feet and had to put some bends in it. When we are a kilometre underground we hope their construction is more solid than their direction finding. No ghosts this time.

Once through the tunnel, we enjoy catching up over cards and boat cooked meals (there is only so many pubs one can visit before you can literally predict every menu), and travel along the canal towards the Watford lock flight. This is a flight that is so steep it has permanent volunteers on hand to assist boats up and down the flight. We pull up at the bottom, and I ran up the hill to the lock keepers hut to register our intention to navigate the locks. Registration complete, we were advised to begin the flight. “Red before white, and you’ll be right” the lock keeper said to me, and following his instructions, we let the boat in the lock, wound the red paddles, then wound the white paddles, and we were indeed, “right” making it to the top of the flight quickly. The flight consists of 7 locks, 4 of which are in a staircase configuration. This means you go up one lock, straight into another, and so ensuring you do the paddles in the correct order is important as to not get stuck.

A further way along the canal, and our friends said thank you and good bye, and again, we were just the 3 of us. In a field.

Unfortunately, the UK flu hit us at this point. We found out later that this has been the worst flu season in the UK for 65 years. The country is basically out of cough medicine and paracetamol, so I raided my handbag stash for paracetamol and we learned quickly how to make cough medicine at home.

Good pour of whiskey in a mug

A squeeze of honey

Good squeeze of lemon juice

Boiling water to the top

Slice of lemon floating around

Sip…

Repeat.

Thank you google

So we take it easy. The boating stops for a few days, we rest, drink our cough medicine, try to placate the neurotic spaniel who is getting increasingly more neurotic the longer we need to recover. Eventually we both feel okay to get our boating again, and decide we will slowly boat up to a small town called Welford.

We manage a lovely walk through the countryside in Welford. I am still coughing a lot, and unfortunately in my frustration with this I decide to cough purposely really hard. “CLICK” something goes in my ribs, and the next day I wake up with very very very sore ribs.

By the time we get to Market Harborough, I need to go to the urgent care at the hospital to get some proper pain killers. Opioids in hand, I do start to get a lot better. PHEW! So most of January at this point has been a little – in the wars to put it mildly. But its okay, as we have our lovely fire, and our fields.

After some exploring around Market Harborough, we fill up with water and leave to head south towards our drop off point in about 10 days. The forecast indicates a couple of sub zero nights and it looks there might be some light ice. By the time we re climbing the Foxton locks the ice was becoming harder to navigate.

We found a parking spot with a view and enjoyed an end of day stout on the roof. The next morning a canal trust boat had come the opposite direction breaking the ice by the time The Squire ventured out for the day.

The day was spent ice breaking until we arrived at Kilworth marina the site of our lorry ride 12 months earlier. With coal and fuel on board we were prepared just in case the ice returned with vengeance and we couldn’t move.

The next morning arrived with the welcome sight of the The Duke and The Duchess, our sister ships, breaking the ice as they passed us. The Duchess in particular had great ice breaking capabilities that we appreciated over the coming days. It’s quite easy to follow another boat that is breaking the ice, but the lead boat works very hard.

Whilst many boaters thanked us for breaking the ice so they could move to get water and coal, this day we encountered the nutty fringe who were convinced the ice was damaging their boats, and probably crop circles are created by aliens and chemtrails are poisoning them. They shouted, swore, threatened and threw things. Who knew narrow boaters could get so excited?

Over the next few days the canal defied the forecast and the ice thickened. The Duke and The Duchess did most of the ice breaking, placating the shouty boaters and getting cheered on by those short of supplies. We enjoyed a delightful dinner at Crick with the American couples aboard the Duke and Duchess and got used to people telling us tails of those determined Americans breaking the ice ahead of us.

Despite our best efforts the ice was slowing our progress enough that we were not going to reach The Squires home at Heyford. We agreed to take it as far as Fenny Compton where our first canal trip had begun a year earlier. It seemed to fitting to end our trip in the same pub it had started.

With bags packed we left The Squire and started the long trip home to Away. Please enjoy these little snaps from the trip.