John Brightley

I seem to recall that in the 1980's British Waterways specifically banned privately owned boats being signwritten with 'British Waterways '. Beaulieu was another boat which was signwritten with "Britain's Waterways" at the time.

Yes, in many respects it's surprising that the early waterway promoters didn't make the Avon navigable all the way up to near Coventry, with a relatively short canal up into the city itself.

The cross-watershed summit pounds of the Coventry Canal, the Birmingham Canal, the Staffs & Worcs and the Trent and Mersey were all under construction in 1768/9 , so I would argue that it is whichever of these summit pounds which was completed first (not the whole canal). In the case of the Coventry, part of it had been built earlier as the Parrott's Canal.

It's certainly worth seeing the parade and looking at the stalls, so if I were you, I'd boat all the way down to Braunston Junction, wait for a gap in the parade boats, turn around, moor on the puddle banks side, and walk down to look at the stalls.

Samanda attended quite a few IWA National Rallies over the years. Nice to see that she's still in good condition. Thankfully she's for sale at a wooden boat specialist at Henley so hopefully will find another good home. https://hscboats.co.uk/boat_for_sale/samanda/

My guess ( and it is only a guess) is that yes, there was the same number of boats moving through the locks in 1975 as now. There were a lot more hire cruisers in the late 1970's and 1980's than there are now. There were also lock usage surveys in the 1970's and 1980's - are they done now ?

Don't worry, to us Midlanders, all the south-east is "London" ! 🙂

In case anyone is interested, there is a piece of art by Alan Firth up for auction at Liskeard this week. It is described as a print, but as my original painting looks like a print from a distance, you might be lucky... https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/ea2d79047d416c778d689dc06f647263/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/general-auction-of-1055-lots-including-stressless-vint-lot-1032/

James Hewitt wrote a book about his travels - 'Adventures of the Nippy'.

One of the news reports quoted by Jen gives the details. The superyachts are built by a company called Feadship at Aalsmeer and they are taken along the canals via Woubrugge and Gouda to the Maas river near Rotterdam, along which they can get to the open sea.

Totally agree. And I wouldn't be without a window at the front so that you can see where you are going or just have a good view from inside when moored up.

This website has videos of several similar yachts being taken through that bridge in the last year: https://youtube.com/@dutchyachting

My favourite spot on the ring you are planning is the Great Haywood area. I would recommend you allow half a day to look around Shugborough Hall and it's grounds.

That's a bit of a non-news story. Large ships 'squeeze' through Dutch waterways every week, because they have been designed to the maximum dimensions for the waterway. See https://youtube.com/@shipspottingnederland What is interesting is the contraption being used to tow the bow of the ship. There must be quite a few yacht movements like this to warrant building a barge arrangement like that.

Actually, Coventry has 3 cathedrals. Of the first one, only the foundations remain. Time Team did an excavation about 20 years ago. The second cathedral is the one which was bombed in the blitz. And then there is the 1960's cathedral.

And the risk of flooding. All that area is in flood zone 3 (high flood risk). The house isn't particularly large. Actually seems expensive to me.

£18k. A cheap way of getting in to the Braunston historic boats parade !

It's shown on the CRT online asset map.

My immediate thought is - why make something like this? All the downsides of a wider beam but little benefit.

Haha Carl ! I probably did ! Thanks for enlightening me ! Faggots and peas were certainly on the menu, but not in a batch. Looks like a few places have been serving them for a while, but it's certainly not widespread. None of the chippies in Kenilworth serve them either. It's good for every town and city to have it's own special delicacies that make the place more distinctive. Have you had a Coventry Godcake ? They date back several hundred years, and are topical as they were traditionally served at Easter. Again, not many places sell them - I've only had one once or twice.

Although batch is the right word, a faggot and pea batch certainly isn't a traditional Coventry delicacy ! I grew up in Coventry and still live close by and have never heard of one of those, let alone had one. Faggots and pays are Black Country, not Warwickshire. Sounds like something someone has made up recently. And bread rolls generally aren't called cobs in Birmingham. Cobs are an East Midlands term. It's generally a roll in Brum. When I was growing up in Coventry in the 70s and 80s, the word 'cob' definitely wasn't used at all. Nor was it used in Brum. The first time I heard the word was when I went to Leicester. I genuinely had no idea what they meant when they said 'cob' to start with. And then I found that 'cob' was also used in Hinckley, whereas 2 miles away in Nuneaton it was always 'batch'.

What makes you think that ? As the advert says, the conversion is written about in a book by Jean Calder.

CRT have made a video about the Hatton open day - you may find it interesting if only for the spider cranes...

Yes, thank you for arranging it Ray. It was a special day.

Thanks Ray. I don't think I have seen the first photo before, so if you do find out where it came from, I would be interested to know. The second photo is similar to one I already have, and shows the view from the end of the arm. The first bridge photo is of Coventry Road bridge, Griff Hollows. The concrete bridge shown was built in 1969, when the canal was still technically navigable but silted up. The photo dates from 1975 when the canal was in the process of being piped/infilled. The second photo is of the railway bridge over the old line of the canal at the new Bermuda Park station. The path on the right is the old towpath, the path on the left is new and connects the two platforms of the station.