Rugby

Another long day.  We started at 9am in rather cold and grey weather and cruised the 3 miles to Hawksbury Junction where we filled up with water from a slow tap and then turned left off the Coventry Canal onto the Oxford Canal passing through the few inches rise stop lock that prevented the Oxford Canal taking water from the Coventry.   The Oxford canal is deeper and straighter than the Coventry so we were able to get a bit more speed.

The old Oxford Canal crossed by an 1820's bridge

Both canals were designed as contour canals by James Brindley not long before his death.  However the Oxford Canal was outclassed by the later Grand Union for the London-Birmingham trade and so was modernised in the late 1820s removing the extravagantly meandering loops.  Some of these can still be seen as side arms to the main canal crossed by attractive iron bridges.

Underneath the M6

The journey is generally through isolated countryside with only the small village of Anstey visible from the canal and the peace is only disturbed by the M69 and M6 bridges and the noise from the occasional Virgin Pendolino running on the nearby West Coast main line.

We arrived at Rugby at 3pm after 16 miles of cruising and the 1 lock.   The weather is forecast to be very wet tomorrow so we plan to stay here until Sunday.