Autumn Cruise: Day 19

For some reason we were up and about early this morning, and set off at 7.45.  The first few locks were against us, and Marsh Lock at Swindon was looked over by a flowerpot fisherman at a nearby house.

The Botterham Locks are a staircase pair, and look very imposing.

Bumblehole lock comes next, followed by The Bratch.  These are three locks very close together — but without being a staircase.  The pounds in between are just four or five feet long, but actually extend off to the side.  Going up, you have to start filling the lock you’re in before you start emptying the lock above; the little tiny pound gets very rough.  There was a volunteer lock keeper on duty, who was rather bossy and not very friendly — maybe he was annoyed about being extracted from his turret office in the rain, which had not long started.

After three more locks we moored up at Wightwick so we could go the the National Trust property, Wightwick Manor.  By now the rain had cleared and the sun was out, so as we walked up the path I made sure I took photos of the outside in case such conditions didn’t last.

We went to the cafe first for lunch, then had a look round this very lovely house, decorated by William Morris.  We last came here some ten years ago, and it seems a lot more of the house is open these days.  It even has a Turkish Bath.

While we were in the house, it began to rain and by the time we had finished looking around it was lashing it down.  As it wasn’t the weather for looking round the gardens, we headed back to the boat, getting soaked on the way.  We made a cup of tea, then saw from the rainfall radar that a break in the weather was on its way.  With the mountain of the Wolverhampton 21 in line for tomorrow, we wanted to be up the last locks on the Staffs and Worcs, so when the rain had pretty much stopped we set off.  We knew there was a boat in front of us, because people we’d seen yesterday had been sheltering under the bridge when we returned from Wightwick Manor.  As we were leaving Wightwick Lock a boat came round the corner, so we expected the next lock to be in our favour; inexplicably it wasn’t.

At Compton Lock, our final lock on this canal, we suddenly came across a queue.  The boat from earlier was going up in the lock, and a hire boat was waiting.  Adrian went to help them both, then it was our turn.  However, I noticed that the bottom gates were’t shut properly, so we tried to clear whatever it was with a burst of water from the prop.  They closed more, so we tried going up but it was clear that the lock would never make a level.  We emptied the lock again, and had a poke about on the cill with the boat pole.  Again there was a slight improvement so we tied again — but again we got six inches from a level but no more.  There was as much water going out as coming in.  We emptied the lock again, reversed out, and called CRT.  After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, because the local office closes at 4pm on a Friday, and our call was at 4.01, the duty manager phoned back and said a team would come out to us.  After a couple of hours it was agreed they’d be here in the morning.

8 miles, 14 locks.  (194 miles, 191 locks)