Moored in Lapworth
Today was a short motoring day, cold, blustery and often wet. We had a lie in and set out just before 11, mooring up 5 minutes later at the BW services at the top of the Knowle flitght of 5 locks; numbers 51 to 47. Hatton flight descends from lock 46, for our readers who have a sense of where we are. The Knowle flight is a beast of a flight, with beasts of locks. It used to be a flight of 6 narrow locks, but in the 1930s was changed to five wide ones. This is the same as with Hatton - wide locks replacing narrow ones. But Hatton is a bit more laid back, slightly stately and the older locks are nestled just next to the new ones. Knowle is a beast. Huge locks, accessed by concrete bridges over the old narrow locks and gates wider and heavier than many on wide locks we've used. The weather didn't help, and Pete says this was his most stressful driving. The wind was howling and even though the rain was gentle, having wet pavements for footholds to push open gates was not easy. The pictures show the weather as well as the size of the locks. One picture shows Bella on the upper level in a lock a bit like a promentory into the lower level. Odd but fascinating. Pete found he was moving Bella furiously on an angle just to keep going straight. Think shopping trolleys x 20 tonnes and add water. Hmmmm. Anyway, we got through in an hour, making this 5 clicks an hour, not four. So we managed! On the lower pound, the wind had died down, the sun made the odd appearance and we enjoyed the scenery. We moored up at Lapworth around half past one; an excellent time to go to the Navigation, the pub just opposite the mooring. We dried out, had a Sunday roast, then walked to Lapworth station to check the timetable for Elizabeth to board a train for Warwick in the morning. Tomorrow starts her Jury Duty, the whole reason why we did this particular journey just now!
Today was a short motoring day, cold, blustery and often wet. We had a lie in and set out just before 11, mooring up 5 minutes later at the BW services at the top of the Knowle flitght of 5 locks; numbers 51 to 47. Hatton flight descends from lock 46, for our readers who have a sense of where we are. The Knowle flight is a beast of a flight, with beasts of locks. It used to be a flight of 6 narrow locks, but in the 1930s was changed to five wide ones. This is the same as with Hatton - wide locks replacing narrow ones. But Hatton is a bit more laid back, slightly stately and the older locks are nestled just next to the new ones. Knowle is a beast. Huge locks, accessed by concrete bridges over the old narrow locks and gates wider and heavier than many on wide locks we've used. The weather didn't help, and Pete says this was his most stressful driving. The wind was howling and even though the rain was gentle, having wet pavements for footholds to push open gates was not easy. The pictures show the weather as well as the size of the locks. One picture shows Bella on the upper level in a lock a bit like a promentory into the lower level. Odd but fascinating. Pete found he was moving Bella furiously on an angle just to keep going straight. Think shopping trolleys x 20 tonnes and add water. Hmmmm. Anyway, we got through in an hour, making this 5 clicks an hour, not four. So we managed! On the lower pound, the wind had died down, the sun made the odd appearance and we enjoyed the scenery. We moored up at Lapworth around half past one; an excellent time to go to the Navigation, the pub just opposite the mooring. We dried out, had a Sunday roast, then walked to Lapworth station to check the timetable for Elizabeth to board a train for Warwick in the morning. Tomorrow starts her Jury Duty, the whole reason why we did this particular journey just now!
