Jonny P

This must surely be the first time anyone has ever referred to the section from Hawkesbury to Coventry as “really quite lovely”. There’s nothing lovely about the locality itself and I say that as someone who grew up around the canal on the Coventry side of Hawkesbury. I return often enough to know it’s not changed significantly since I was young other than new roads and industry giving way to leisure and retail pursuits. Testament to the work of the canal society I think. It’s probably similar to why I enjoy cruising the Dudley No 2 down to Hawne Basin.

I took the post to mean that such locks wouldn’t routinely have weired through both ends working together as they do today because the gates would be left open by departing craft and therefore would weir at one end or the other. I don’t think it was intended to suggest the locks were normally left in an empty state with the bottom gates open. As such the phenomenon of having a small head of water above the top gate would not have been so prevalent.

Indeed, though I wasn’t talking about buildings per se. As I understand it the old (pre-1940) and new (post-1962) cathedrals occupy a single piece of consecrated ground and are collectively a single place of worship, the Cathedral Church of St Michael, at which acts of worship can take place in either building under the same ministry. So they are actually a single “church” despite being separate buildings.

The sub-discussion in question was specifically about locks that weir through the ground paddle culverts and into the lock, and then over the bottom gates.

Thrupp is good and has two pubs that will be open. There’s an hourly bus to Oxford leaving at xx:52 throughout off peak hours from the bus stop on the main road at the end of the lane that runs alongside the canal. Any reason why you want the mooring in Oxford to be on the river? The visitor moorings at Jericho (immediately above Isis lock and the junction) on the canal are easily walkable from the station. The closest moorings to the station on the Thames have been reported as closed (if I understood the report correctly).

Two buildings but collectively the Cathedral Church of St Michael. I’m very familiar with the place. Or at least I was when younger.

Point or order. Despite the words of the football chant (that was nicked off Liverpool anyway) Coventry only has one cathedral.

Wasn’t that standard when I was there but not so bad I wouldn’t give it another try; and as stated there isn’t much option if you’re at Great Haywood. Butty Bach is much better than anything @IanD listed from their website. Easy to find in my neck of the woods.

My knowledge of The Wharf is as up to date as many it seems. Last visited in the first few days of September 2020 when it was in full ‘just reopened after Covid restrictions’ mode so had to sit outside as a late booking. Was still fine though but the previous visit was better.

My recollection is that “all right”is about the level of the beer.

Definitely encourage more visitors down to Coventry basin. Easily done in less than two hours even after allowing for relatively slow progress and some caution through bridge holes.

It did surprise me, I expected it to be 12’ 6”. Although the Market Harborough ‘arm’ is even less at 9’ 6”. I’ll check the minimum legal waterway dimension later.

Well they could be, but it would be a bit pointless since they’d be below the designed weir level. In fact it wouldn’t really work if they were level so in reality the top gates have to be set higher in such circumstances.

I did originally type that The Wharf at Welford was a good pub and therefore recommended but it is a while since I last visited so I thought better of it.

Maximum craft dimensions state 10’ beam between Leicester and Foxton. I wouldn’t be keen on steering even that.

Have done Stockton top to bottom of Foxton and return in a midweek hire trip. That was a lot tbh but as you say your plan will be fine for time. It’s a nice trip. My main recommendation is to detour down the Welford Arm in at least one direction, there’s a pub right at the end. If nothing else if breaks up the 20 mile pound between Foxton and Watford. Be prepared for a wait at Foxton and Watford flights, particularly the former.

Buckby locks have the top gates set slightly higher than the lower gates but the design is intended to weir over the top of the ground paddles and into the lock rather than over the top of the top gates. The lower end of the Worcester & Birmingham also has locks that weir in the same way and although I can’t say if the top gates are higher than the bottom gates they logically can’t be lower.

In the first diagram you’ve highlighted the side of the mitred gate that pivots whereas the photo is of the free edge of a single leaf gate. Nonetheless whatever is in that space on either side is part of the system that enables the gate(s) to seal so it needs to be serviceable.

Both methods are part of the RYA training syllabus for inland waterways, that’s where I learnt it. Yes it may be that one method is better for certain combinations of boat and crew but I prefer the reversing method; generally single handed on a traditional shaped boat with a bigger and deeper propellor than average. When moving other people’s boats I think it has a big advantage in getting lined up for entering a lock than trying to go straight from the bankside. Way less risk of cross winding the boat.

Nothing wrong with giving the boat a push. The best way to leave a mooring is to push the back end out while stood on the stern then reverse until the bow comes off the bank then apply a burst of forward power to bring the bow round. The tiller should be held at about 45 degrees with the rudder pointing to the opposite bank throughout. You should then find that you end up parallel to the bank with plenty of distance between it and you, very useful if you’re leaving a lock landing as it gives you the time and space to manoeuvre without bashing the piling and cross winding the boat in the lock entrance. Wind can result in you simply being blown back against the bank you’re attempting to leave, and that’s when springing comes into play. Of course if you have a crew member they can push the bow out but that will mean them working between bank and boat, a good way of falling in, and engaging the propeller up against the bank.

You’ve been watching too much Grange Hill. Yes to IPA should be strong. Must admit I did open up a bottle of red after some lagers but don’t often do white.

Yeah, that’s my thoughts. So shouldn’t you have said “YES”? This evening we’ve fired up the pizza oven and I’ve chosen a box of bottles of lager to share with my lad, who doesn’t drink ale, over anything “craft” available in the supermarket. There’s some decent tinned craft beers but they get a bit meh in quantity. Can’t beat a fresh cask ale.

A question for those who know their beer and know more about brewing processes than I do. I see beers described as IPAs on here that are quite weak in strength, there’s one at 3.8% above. To me an IPA is a heavily hopped strong brew and I always took it that the strength was to get balance with the heavy hopping that was necessary to preserve the stuff on its passage to India. Hence I’m a bit sceptical of anything claiming to be an IPA that’s less than 5%. What’s other folks thoughts?

I’m pretty sure that both types exist; even on the four sets of such paddles that I can think of in the Midlands.