Sept 13th moored in Coventry basin on Coventry canal

         59 miles and 21 locks from Aston Marina

Thursday 13th Sept

Pleasant morning and we set off heading south through Hartshill reasonably early. The old maintenance yard is now empty with 'To Let' signs up.
As far as I can see it is yet another indication that CRT (nee BW) has no intention of maintaining the canal system in the way it used to be maintained with local people, local knowledge, local boats and equipment.  From the historic point of view it is like the National Trust disposing of their stately homes and keeping the gardens,  no intention of preserving the history or reason for the site.  In reality it seems that maintenance of the navigable canal system is the last thing on their minds.  Maintenance boats (the few that are left) are rarely seen in use and mostly seem to be abandoned full of litter and weeds.

On through and round Nuneaton, we were going to stop and explore the Griff arm with the dogs but a suitable mooring spot was somewhat lacking and two boats appeared just at the crucial moment so we pressed on pausing at Hawkesbury Junction to water up, empty loo and dispose of rubbish.  Moved on along the Coventry canal arm and after another two hour cruise into the Coventry Basin. On the way we passed the Terrace of houses with weavers galleries (Cash's One Hundred).

 

Only three boats moored up so plenty of room and we moored in the arm nearest the city centre next to the warehouse.

by a statue of Brindley...

and outside the Coventry Telegraph offices.

Once moored up and we went for a walk with the dogs and after false start found Barrs Hill school where Bridie and her sister went to school.  No longer same buildings (although it looks as if some old buidings were retained).

and no longer all girls. After returning to put dogs back on board we went for an explore of the city centre and to the cathedrals both old....

and new....

Here is a view of the glass front of the new cathedral reflecting the walls of the old and the second photo homes in on our reflection taking the photo!.

One spot we also went to find was the Registry office where Bridie and I were wed back in 1974.

There was someone dossing down for the night in the porch so we had a little difficulty getting the shot we wanted!   After this we were feeling rather hungry and found that Thursday night was curry night in the Flying Standard (Wetherspoons black and white timbered pub seen here in background beyond Lady Godiva)...

 where we had a very reasonably priced meal (drink included with my curry).

Wednesday 12th Sept

Bit of a grey start to the day and we chilled out. Took the dogs for a walk down the towpath to Hartshill yard and up the lane from bridge 31 into Hartshill. Had a couple of excursions onto sections of the Quarrymans walk by old quarries and through woodland by the old castle walls. Managed to get back to the boat without getting wet but it started to rain before we had finished lunch. The afternoon was fairly miserable weather wise and we stayed on board.

Tuesday 10th Sept

Plenty of boats moving this morning, especially as we unmoored ready to set off. We were following at least
two boats towards Bradley Green services where we watered up without much of a wait. Then on to the
Atherstone lock flight (eleven locks ahead of us today) had three boats ahead of us at the bottom lock. The
owner of 'Brown Trout' in front was single handing and informed us he had been in a road accident recently and was hobbling on a swollen ankle. When his turn to enter lock 11 came Bridie was on hand to assist and that is how it was until lock 6 when we stopped for lunch. Each lock we went through Bridie help him through as well although he generally had got into the lock before she was ready to assist. All would have been Ok but she got fed up with his miserable outlook on life, boating (which he only does to please his wife), his accident and his involvement in the Buckingham canal preservation scene. And there was no thank you for the help either! The weather improved as we climbed the flight although it was rather blustery. We stopped for lunch on hearing that there were delays at the second lock where they were clearing out a side pond and using the lock to fill the work boat with the mud. I used the time to finish polishing the port side. By the time we got to the top of the flight they had almost finished work for the day and were tidying up and we went straight through. We cruised on through Atherstone stopping for the night just after bridge 34.