'Hotel 'Takara' passed us heading to Stratford about 30 mins before we were ready for the off. When we left the boat astern of us was making preparations to leave so we went slowly so as it have a lock buddy. It seems we missed a bit of mayhem as a boat and butty passed us and out of our sight it seems there was groundings etc etc and still somebody sneaking through it all.
We had time to moor below the first lock of the day, Radford Bottom Lock, and take the rubbish to the skips and start swinging the locks round. There must be another boat going up!! Very quickly 'Still Waters' with Pat and Charles came round the corner and we set off up the ten locks of the day.
All along the 'improved' Grand Union you see these stamps in the edging concrete. The dates seem to vary between 1930 and 1935 and all have the height of the water level and next to it the depth to dredge to so as not to damage the puddling.
The locks came and went quite easily as we chatted on the way up.
Helen appears to be dwarfed by the paddle gear here. The thin rod sticking out of the top of the white cover is the tell tale that makes it easy to see whether a paddle has been left up or down.
There were a few boats coming down but there was little delay with the girls making short work of the heavy work, not so easy in the muggy heat today. When we got to Welsh Road Lock there was a bit of a queue and one of those coming down was a C&RT boat. They asked Helen if she knew there was a stoppage at Shop Lock just past Long Itchington!! No we hadn't!!!
We went up the Bascote Locks including the staircase pair.
The view from the top means that the locks are finished for the day. We always planned to stop at Long Itchington so we moored up near the Aqueduct and had some lunch and decided to see what was what afterwards.
There are several hire boats here waiting, and another couple managed to turn and are heading back again. None of them had been informed about the stoppage by the company's when they picked up the boat. There were no signs down a ways and apparently not at the top either! Shop Lock is the bottom of the Stockton Locks so if you start down. They obviously let a few boats down this morning whilst they were getting set up. When we walked up we found the lock drained and the stop planks in top and bottom of the lock.
We could see that the bottom of the lock was very clean and tidy and the bottom gates had been replaced in 2015 winter stoppages. The plates covering the bottom gate collars were off. When we got back we found that there had been difficulty in closing or opening the gates in May but as it was a the busy half term period they put it off until now. It seems that there is trouble with the collars. We arrived at 1630 to see the lads jumping in their vans and heading home. It seems that it isn't that important. Mind you it seems that they should have it all boxed off by tea time on Thursday so no trouble for us really.
There doesn't seem to be any heavy gear here and the stoppage states that it is investigation rather than real work. I assume that they are hoping that they can find the problem easily and fix it quickly.
We then walked into the village to post a letter. The pubs didn't open until 1700 so Helen consoled herself with getting a bargain of 6 packets of crisps for 59p. I have work that I can be getting on with so it will be quite restful for us and not to be endured badly. Providing that they do open on time that is.
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