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Warwickshire ring advice


cornishdave

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Hi all, 

I know this has probably been done to death over the years, but hoping for a sanity check on my plans and any updated advice re. pubs etc.

We're planning the first week of Sept and are thinking of the Warwickshire ring from Napton, can anyone advise?
We're a family of 6 with ages varying between 18 and 50s, half of us are fairly experienced and half newbies, would ideally like to spend the evenings staying near a decent pub with food (doesn't have to be fancy, just decent pub grub is fine). So far I've come up with this:

Night 1 - Blue Lias/Two boats

Night 2 - Saltisford Arm (a few options on pubs with walking distance of here I think)

Night 3 - Catherine De Barnes

Night4 - Curdworth (either the Cuttle Bridge Inn or White Horse)

Night 5 - Atherstone ish (maybe the Kings Head, although looks like may be noisy due to A5?)

Night 6 - Hawkesbury Junction ish (Greyhound?)

Night 7 - Braunston Turn

Does this look about right, and any specific pubs to avoid/try?

 

Many thanks

Dave

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Two boats much better than blue lias for food.

Night 2, Saltisford if you want to go into Warwick but the Cape is the best for food and drink so I would just park outside the cape if it's just one pub you are after. Saltisford is really good though.

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Night 5 - The moorings below the Kings Head are fine and not too noisy if you can find a spot near the lower lock. You will have to find another pub (not difficult in Atherstone) - the Kings Head closed sometime in 2017.

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The timing looks good to me. 

I am with Dr Bob, lf you have time to push on the extra 2 locks the first night I would also go for the Two Boats at Long Itchington rather than Blue Lias, and I would say you don't need to go into the Saltisford arm just stop above Cape locks and you have a Cape of Good Hope.    

The pob at Hawkesbury is indeed the Greyhound.

 

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12 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Assuming we are talking about a hire boat I doubt the Saltisford arm is an overnight stopping place as it is private moorings. There are visitor moorings above Cape locks and the pub is well worth a visit.

JP

Saltisford is not just private moorings. They welcome passing boats and charge £5 per night but water on tap and lecky (for a charge). We called in 4 or 5 times last year and joined the society (first night free each visit). I think it was £12 to join for a year. Ian shoehorns boats in until it is full with bresting up required when busy. I assume it will be the same this year. 10 mins walk into town. Very useful for getting to warwick parkway (train). They charge for leaving a car in their car park. Very useful place.

Edited by Dr Bob
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I second the comment about booking if you want food in the Greyhound 

We were there this Wednesday and had to wait about 45minutes for a table. Worth the wait though

We didn't expect a pub to be so busy mid week in March '

Haggis 

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1 minute ago, haggis said:

I second the comment about booking if you want food in the Greyhound 

We were there this Wednesday and had to wait about 45minutes for a table. Worth the wait though

We didn't expect a pub to be so busy mid week in March '

Haggis 

We were last there in October, very busy, but it does seem to quieten off after 8.  You can book in the dining room rather than the bar.

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1 hour ago, Dr Bob said:

Saltisford is not just private moorings. They welcome passing boats and charge £5 per night but water on tap and lecky (for a charge). We called in 4 or 5 times last year and joined the society (first night free each visit). I think it was £12 to join for a year. Ian shoehorns boats in until it is full with bresting up required when busy. I assume it will be the same this year. 10 mins walk into town. Very useful for getting to warwick parkway (train). They charge for leaving a car in their car park. Very useful place.

Private as in not CRT administered and therefore you have to pay is what I meant; not that they were unavailable. I know the place as I once briefly lived in Warwick and I left my own boat there for a few weeks last summer.

Maybe the OP knows this and genuinely wants to moor on the arm but unless it is a specific requirement I suspect the visitor moorings and a visit to The Cape of Good Hope is more likely. Is there a better pub in Warwick?

JP

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Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.

The main reason I was thinking Saltisford arm was a thought that if we arrive early enough we might take a wander in to Warwick for a mooch around the town, but if we haven't got time for that when we get to Cape then we'll probably stop there :-)

I did realise that Saltisford was privately owned but was under the impression that the first night is free, although to be honest £5 seems very reasonable anyway.

Thanks all

Dave

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1 hour ago, cornishdave said:

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.

The main reason I was thinking Saltisford arm was a thought that if we arrive early enough we might take a wander in to Warwick for a mooch around the town, but if we haven't got time for that when we get to Cape then we'll probably stop there :-)

I did realise that Saltisford was privately owned but was under the impression that the first night is free, although to be honest £5 seems very reasonable anyway.

Thanks all

Dave

From The Cape if you walk out through their car park you can follow Cape Road in to Warwick which isn't much different than walking from the Saltisford Arm.

 

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22 hours ago, frahkn said:

Night 5 - The moorings below the Kings Head are fine and not too noisy if you can find a spot near the lower lock. You will have to find another pub (not difficult in Atherstone) - the Kings Head closed sometime in 2017.

The Kings Head was open when I went there in January. I think they were new landlords/owners. The beer and food was good. If you're not bothered about a pub and prefer a quieter overnight mooring a little away from Atherstone there are plenty of nice moorings in open countryside towards the bottom end of the lock flight - anywhere between bridge 45 & 48.

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2 hours ago, Grassman said:

The Kings Head was open when I went there in January. I think they were new landlords/owners. The beer and food was good. If you're not bothered about a pub and prefer a quieter overnight mooring a little away from Atherstone there are plenty of nice moorings in open countryside towards the bottom end of the lock flight - anywhere between bridge 45 & 48.

Thanks, that's useful to know.

It's been open and closed on and off in recent years but when I was last there (October 2017) it looked terminal. Pleased to hear it wasn't.

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1 minute ago, cornishdave said:

Thanks again.

One further question then - given what I've said above, on a 7 day hire would we be pushing our luck to go up the north Stratford and stop near Gas Street rather than the shorter way?

Not really. It's a standard route done every week by a good number of hirers. It's a much nicer route too. Just plan it out and crack on with it.

Canal Planner is quite conservative with lock times and also with the differential between narrow canal and broad canal cruising speeds. Going via Birmingham the fights at Lapworth, Farmer's Bridge and Aston are quick and you will probably better the theoretical times. That may not be so with the via Camp Hill route as it is shallow and Knowle locks are hard work, particularly if you aren't sharing with another boat. Lapworth is one of the easiest and nicest lock flights on the network.

JP

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2 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Not really. It's a standard route done every week by a good number of hirers. It's a much nicer route too. Just plan it out and crack on with it.

Canal Planner is quite conservative with lock times and also with the differential between narrow canal and broad canal cruising speeds. Going via Birmingham the fights at Lapworth, Farmer's Bridge and Aston are quick and you will probably better the theoretical times. That may not be so with the via Camp Hill route as it is shallow and Knowle locks are hard work, particularly if you aren't sharing with another boat. Lapworth is one of the easiest and nicest lock flights on the network.

JP

I agree with this, doable as long as you are prepared to put on the hours, and a nicer route with the advantage of overnighting in Birmingham.   You will have to do 30+ lock days so a couple of days will be hard work.

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2 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Probably means you miss out on Warwick. Day 2, get to the top of Hatton and stop at the pub there, then day 3 you can do Lapworth and get to Gas Street. We did that route last year but took 9 days to do it as we werent pushing it.

Night 1 Long Itchington, night 2 Kingwood Junction, night 3 Birmingham.

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I only did the Warwickshire Ring as a single cruise once and that was in 1983 but it was from Napton. I recall we got a good start and were at Radford Semele on the first evening. We stopped for a bit in Warwick and did Hatton after lunch on the second afternoon (first full day) and were moored at Knowle top before the shops shut in the village that evening. Curdworth by the next evening. Easy from there on.

Hatton top to Gas St is a long way in one day. Kingswood to central Birmingham (or vice versa) I have done a couple times by both routes recently and that's a decent day and bear in mind I think anything less than 8 hours isn't really trying. I tend to agree though that unless it's a late start on the pick up day Hatton is more likely to be on the first full day than the second.

The Navigation Inn at Lapworth is one of my favourites and I just happen to have a boat short enough to be able to turn within the width of the canal adjacent to their mooring so I can take a quick detour there no matter what my route.

If going via Birmingham the best plan may be to crack on to get there at the end of the second full day and then relax a bit.

JP

ETA - Thought I had quoted Dr Bob. It reads like I am talking to myself!

Edited by Captain Pegg
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It could be worth walking into long itchington as the Harvester (no connection to the pub chain of that name) has better beer and food than the others, added bonus of a co-op if you need to stock up on anything. 

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