Ashby...what do you think?

[junior]

In the last years of commercial carrying, after the last mining subsidence closure from the Ilott Wharf near Measham to the waterworks at Snarestone, coal for Dickinsons paper mills at Croxley from Donisthorpe pit was loaded at Gopsall Wharf near Snarestone.

Going up there to load, the normal running time for a pair of empty boats from cut end at Bedworth to winding at Snarestone and tied up at the wharf was 7 hours.

Back down the cut loaded, including getting both boats out of the stop lock and onto the Coventry, was the best part of 10 hours, not because of getting stuck, but just down to slow speed with two boats, drawing up to 3' 8'', in a very restricted channel, and in Summer being slowed up more by weed, worse towards the top end.

Interesting you should mention this as ive just read a very interesting short book by Tim and Andrew Collier about their exploits on the Ashby with ELSTREE and you get a few mentions in the book.

[Athy]

Well if it was on the Ashby it can't be because he left all the lock gates open.

[Detling]

Having just returned from this beautiful stretch of water the only issue we had was meeting a boat on a corner with a cross wind. as he came round towards us he shouted that he was touching the bottom so he slowed down! As his bow was rapidly swinging towards us we were able get him to understand that we were stationary with the starboard side 4 inches higher than the port, he was welcome to join us on the mud if he wished, but we weren't going anywhere. Yes the bottom is to close to the top and this was north of Stoke Golding moorings.

[Guest]

Love the Ashby, been along it this year and last year. Shallow in parts, feels like you are towing an anchor in parts, but worth it.

[frahkn]

 

Agreed. I've never been able to understand why so many contributors to this forum find the Lime Kilns such a good place to be. Personally I think it's awful, the food is very middlin' and the welcome is non-existent. It's one of the few poor things about cruising the Ashby. What's the Wharf like?

The Wharf does not sell food but otherwise it's everything you could want in a local pub (imho). There is an (over-rated by reviewers but quite good nonetheless) Indian restaurant and takeaway next door.

[Keeping Up]

I'm in the Lime Kilns right now - using their WiFi- and I must say we got a very friendly welcome, the beer is good, and we're just waiting for food now.

 

ETA That steak stilton and mushroom pie was excellent (and it was a proper pie, not just a dish of slop with a flaky lid) and Pingu tells me her Beef Burgundy was excellent too.

 

We'll make a point of going right to the very end of the canal!

 

Does anyone know if the Horse and Jockey at Congerstone is still good?

Edited August 10, 2015 by Keeping Up

[Guest]

Our favourite pub on the Ashby was always the Globe at Snarestone (Moor just before the tunnel).

 

But I concede it's a while now since we were there.

 

(Dog friendly too)

[Dave Payne]

Got back last night from a couple of days on the Ashby,. lovely canal, took my time all the way and just enjoyed it.

 

As its only half a days cruise from the marina i plan to go back up in the winter one weekend, was a little busy this weekend with hire boats, one pushing me into the bank, which was nice.

 

One little tip, do not moor near the industrial units just past lime kilns going north, Tesco have a big 24/7 warehouse which has a lovely tannoy blasting out all night.

 

Deffo gets better towards the top, thin but great cruising in the sun.

[Pennie]

 

Does anyone know if the Horse and Jockey at Congerstone is still good?

 

I was told it was expensive and not really worth it so I didn't go to there

[Pennie]

 

Does anyone know if the Horse and Jockey at Congerstone is still good?

 

I was told it was expensive and not really worth it so I didn't go to there

[colinwilks]

 

Does anyone know if the Horse and Jockey at Congerstone is still good?

 

It's now a gastro pub, so more of a restaurant than a pub with food. Quite pricey, but we had a good meal a few months ago.

 

Don't miss out on the joys of Stoke Golding. The George & Dragon has some seriously good beer and there's an excellent Indian tagged on the back of the Three Horseshoes.

 

If you tie up at Duck Bend, just after the permanent moorings north of Stoke Golding, the Dog & Hedgehog in Dadlington is a short walk away over the fields and has excellent food, although it's not cheap.

[Dave Payne]

If you want some fancy dining then try the Hercules Revived at Sutton Cheney, took the wife there for a meal a few weeks ago, its about 5/10 minute walk up the hill from Sutton wharf.

 

http://www.herculesrevived.co.uk

[Nige G]

What a great thread.

 

This is all very useful info for me as I'm planning on a trip up the Ashby at the beginning of September

 

Is there anywhere we should avoid mooring overnight?

[Pennie]

Lots of dog poop on the tow path at hinckley but still felt safe to moor there alone for a could of nights

[Dave Payne]

What a great thread.

 

This is all very useful info for me as I'm planning on a trip up the Ashby at the beginning of September

 

Is there anywhere we should avoid mooring overnight?

 

Its safe all the way, if you want peace and quiet then maybe avoid mooring close to Hinckley as it can be noisy with the A5 and industrial estate, lots of nice spots if you can get on them due to the reeds on the bank.

[frangar]

It's a pub that:-

 

Doesn't sell Guinness

Doesn't sell any recognisable premium lager

Doesn't sell wine except in those little individual bottles

Doesn't allow dogs

And a woman eating in the garden gave her steak to our dog rather than eat it.

Didn't see the ducklings but hopefully, they will turn out better than the steak.

 

Otherwise, I couldn't argue with a word of your post!

 

 

 

The Wharf Inn is only 15 mins walk away.

It does however sell a great range of real ale and real cider...anyone who drinks lager or wine in a proper pub needs their head looking at anyhow...the food IMHO is good value and mostly homemade. Eaten there quite a few times as it's fairly local to us by car.

 

Oh and I like the landlord.....he tells it how it is....always been fine with me but there again I'm always pleasant with him....maybe you reap what you sow?.....he's also all for boats....hosts a raft race once a year and is happy for you to moor on the bank by the garden.

 

It's one of our favourite pubs on the whole system.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

 

Oh and the Rising Sun in shackerstone managed to give a whole group of us food poisoning....we know it was from them as the only people that were ill were the ones who had the same dish....and the snooty cow of a landlady couldn't have cared less.

 

Cheers

Gareth

[bassplayer]

Talking about Shackerstone. We moored up there on the way up the Ashby hoping to get lunch at the Rising Sun only to find it shut due to unforseen circumstamces. We chatted to a 'local' boater who said they always seemed to shut at lunchtimes but another local said it was for a bereavement.

 

We moored there again on the Thursday evening hoping to visit the railway Friday morning only to find it's shut on Friday's! We didn't have a lot of luck really but it's a nice place to stop.

[Woodstock]

Talking about Shackerstone. We moored up there on the way up the Ashby hoping to get lunch at the Rising Sun only to find it shut due to unforseen circumstamces. We chatted to a 'local' boater who said they always seemed to shut at lunchtimes but another local said it was for a bereavement.

We moored there again on the Thursday evening hoping to visit the railway Friday morning only to find it's shut on Friday's! We didn't have a lot of luck really but it's a nice place to stop.

We stopped on a Monday night 2 years ago but they didn't do food on a Monday so they reccomended an Indian takeaway, told us to have it delivered there and couldn't have been friendlier. Excellent takeaway as well. Wonder if its still the same people. Dog friendly as well

[Laurie Booth]

Talking about Shackerstone. We moored up there on the way up the Ashby hoping to get lunch at the Rising Sun only to find it shut due to unforseen circumstamces. We chatted to a 'local' boater who said they always seemed to shut at lunchtimes but another local said it was for a bereavement.

 

We moored there again on the Thursday evening hoping to visit the railway Friday morning only to find it's shut on Friday's! We didn't have a lot of luck really but it's a nice place to stop.

Closed because of food poisoning ?

[Tony Dunkley]

Interesting you should mention this as ive just read a very interesting short book by Tim and Andrew Collier about their exploits on the Ashby with ELSTREE and you get a few mentions in the book.

 

I can remember the two brothers turning up a few times and doing some lock-wheeling before they bought 'Elstree' in one of the Wendover Arm sales, and one of them, Andrew, came along for pretty much all of one trip in return for working his passage. I'm fairly sure they didn't ever come with me up the Moira to load for Croxley, and the time when Andrew came for one trip I was working for Blue Line, when they always had at least one extra pair on in the Winter, with 'Jaguar' and 'Achilles' running to Southall from Baddesley pit at Atherstone.

[Dyad]

On Google Maps it has it labelled the "Ashby De La Zouch" canal, I thought it was just "Ashby".

[Tam & Di]

In the last years of commercial carrying, after the last mining subsidence closure from the Ilott Wharf near Measham to the waterworks at Snarestone, coal for Dickinsons paper mills at Croxley from Donisthorpe pit was loaded at Gopsall Wharf near Snarestone.

.

 

In the early 70s Nick Hill, Tom Henshaw and Dave Warren among others formed the Ashby Canal Carrying Co. as an offshoot of the ACA in order to keep working traffic on the Moira. Coal was loaded for retail sale at Gopsall Wharf - there were not that many people living on boats back then and we delivered to quite a few canalside houses plus we loaded for bulk deliveries to the Thames lock keepers for instance.

 

Here are are Towcester & Bude and Stamford & Bingley at that time. The Moira was not deep enough for a full load but it was not too bad nevertheless.

 

Tam

 

[Tony Dunkley]

 

In the early 70s Nick Hill, Tom Henshaw and Dave Warren among others formed the Ashby Canal Carrying Co. as an offshoot of the ACA in order to keep working traffic on the Moira. Coal was loaded for retail sale at Gopsall Wharf - there were not that many people living on boats back then and we delivered to quite a few canalside houses plus we loaded for bulk deliveries to the Thames lock keepers for instance.

 

Here are are Towcester & Bude and Stamford & Bingley at that time. The Moira was not deep enough for a full load but it was not too bad nevertheless.

 

Tam

 

 

I doubt that the part loaded motor in the photo is Stamford, unless it had been extensively mucked about with by having a Woolwich ramshead fitted to go with a bashed in Woolwich counter Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, the last time I saw Stamford it was on the British Waterways limejuice job to Boxmoor in the late 1960's, worked by Tom Humphries (with Bude), and it was a big Northwich.

I'm assuming when you say the Moira wasn't deep enough for a full load, that you mean around 50 tons on a pair and that you were loading much less than that. If that's so and you were getting stuck in a few places between Snarestone and cut end at Bedworth, then the reason for that was the lighter load itself. The Moira was never a shallow cut but the deep channel was fairly narrow and well defined, with a generally quite hard bottom with some soft mud covering it to each side and a boat with anything less than a normal full load would wander out of it and tend to run up into the shallower water. The slowest bridges length is the Gudgeon Brook between bridges 5 and 6 and you could think it's shallow because of being so slow, but it isn't, it's just down to it being so narrow. There's also a big inside turn between bridges 3 and 4 with just about a boats width of deep water round it and a solid, hard bottom. It would be difficult not to get stuck round that with a light loaded boat not drawing enough to keep itself in the channel.

Steering empty boats up that cut always needed far more care and attention to avoid getting stemmed up than was needed coming off it loaded, when in many places the boats almost steered themselves down the middle, because there was nowhere else for them to go.

[Top cat]

It's a pub that:-

 

Doesn't sell Guinness

Doesn't sell any recognisable premium lager

Doesn't sell wine except in those little individual bottles

Doesn't allow dogs

And a woman eating in the garden gave her steak to our dog rather than eat it.

Didn't see the ducklings but hopefully, they will turn out better than the steak.

 

Otherwise, I couldn't argue with a word of your post!

The

The Wharf Inn is only 15 mins walk away.

Been to the Linekilns many times, always been made most welcome and enjoyed the food, the beef Burgandy was excellent last time. I don't drink lager or Guinness so no loss to me there but I often try the guest beer, sometimes good sometimes average but with guest beers its a lottery. Don't have a dog and prefer pubs without them.

 

Top Cat

[archie57]

I doubt that the part loaded motor in the photo is Stamford, unless it had been extensively mucked about with by having a Woolwich ramshead fitted to go with a bashed in Woolwich counter Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, the last time I saw Stamford it was on the British Waterways limejuice job to Boxmoor in the late 1960's, worked by Tom Humphries (with Bude), and it was a big Northwich.

I'm assuming when you say the Moira wasn't deep enough for a full load, that you mean around 50 tons on a pair and that you were loading much less than that. If that's so and you were getting stuck in a few places between Snarestone and cut end at Bedworth, then the reason for that was the lighter load itself. The Moira was never a shallow cut but the deep channel was fairly narrow and well defined, with a generally quite hard bottom with some soft mud covering it to each side and a boat with anything less than a normal full load would wander out of it and tend to run up into the shallower water. The slowest bridges length is the Gudgeon Brook between bridges 5 and 6 and you could think it's shallow because of being so slow, but it isn't, it's just down to it being so narrow. There's also a big inside turn between bridges 3 and 4 with just about a boats width of deep water round it and a solid, hard bottom. It would be difficult not to get stuck round that with a light loaded boat not drawing enough to keep itself in the channel.

Steering empty boats up that cut always needed far more care and attention to avoid getting stemmed up than was needed coming off it loaded, when in many places the boats almost steered themselves down the middle, because there was nowhere else for them to go.

How about the "Hawkesbury" when in the ownership of Kim McGavin?