Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE YEARS BETWEEN BOATS

BIRMINGHAM & THE THAMES

August 1988

Part 1 : Birmingham to Somerton

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version with a caption

Wendy and myself with Peter and Ian made up our regular summer crew in our years between boats. We had become satisfied customers of Brummagem Boats at Sherborne Street Wharf on the Oozells Street Loop of the BCN, so for our Summer trip in 1988 we booked their boat Beauty for a two-week trip whose destination was the Thames.

We were due for a Saturday morning start, so we came up early by train, left our luggage at the wharf and went off to do the shopping in Tesco at Fiveways. The weather was cool put pleasant as we set off on our cruise at 11:28, passing through Ladywood and Old Turn Junctions and Gas Street Basin (which was looking interesting), where we joined the Worcester & Birmingham Canal which we followed to King's Norton junction and the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. The latter was in need of dredging, so we found it hard going. It started raining about two hours after King's Norton. We moored for the night at Hockley Heath at 18:25, finding depth by one of the swing-bridges.

We started again at 07:03. Lapworth locks are lovely, even in dull weather. At Lapworth we turned off for Kingswood junction and the Grand Union. Hatton locks were surprisingly un-crowded at first. It came on to rain as we were three-quarters of the way down the flight. We stopped for lunch before Cape locks. The Cape of Good Hope was serving food but we chose to eat on board.

We went on to an overnight mooring at 18:17 at Long Itchington at where we had the choice of two pubs, the Cuttle Inn and the Two Boats. We noted for future reference that the Two Boats did food on Sunday evening. We were well pleased with our day's run. 52 locks was the most we'd ever done in a day. By January 2001 it still is.

FX (ff) encouraged us to start at 06:37 in sunny, breezy weather . There was a pretty sky and good birdsong. We took on water above Calcutt top lock then reached Napton junction and headed south on the Oxford Canal. It was very pleasant cruising conditions and we'd forgotten how lovely the scenery on this canal is. We'd never done the South Oxford in the original Felis Catus, so our only previous experience of it went back to 1977, on our last hire-boat trip before buying the old boat. On that trip we had gone as far south as Cropredy, and that was our mooring place this evening, at 18:20.

It was a misty morning when we started at 07:35, but turned to sunshine later. We stopped for shopping and lunch before Banbury lock. Mooring here was not nearly so traumatic as we'd been led to believe. We weren't destined to go back to Banbury again until the summer of 2000, by which time the place had changed almost beyond recognition. In the afternoon the scenery continued to be remarkably pretty, and Wendy regretted not bringing her copy of Keble Martin.

Our next stop was at Aynho wharf , at the (then) Anglo-Welsh base, to try to find out what the arrangements are for getting a Thames licence. We received a somewhat confused answer. Aynho lock is oddly-shaped and has poor approaches above and below. Most of the lift-bridges were permanently up, and the one that wasn't appeared to be guarded by a cuddly toy pushmipullyu. The towpath often disappeared in this area. We moored at 18:47 by Somerton bridge.