Radford Road Bridge 34, Grand Union – Monday 25 June 2012
The French Navy left quietly during Saturday morning, something to do with a visit to the Two Boats pub during the evening?  Weather has been warm and sunny all weekend and I have done very little.  Sunday I went to the Holy Trinity church in the village (according to the Nicholson guide the church is “A largely 13th Century church whose tall spire was blown down in a gale in 1762, and replaced with a stump”).  It is a nice church with lots of memorials to different parishioners’ charity.  It also includes one to Lady Anne Holbourne, a daughter of “ye Right Honorable Sir Robert Dudley Kt Dux of Empire who bequeathed 50 pound per annum to Mr Sam Roll Minister of this church & to his successors forever & also 50 more for ye poor of this parish”.  If this was the same Dudley of Elizabeth’s time that was a LOT of money as he died in 1588.  Others were not quite up to the same value; one from William Dolton (for £20 in 1835) went to pay lawyers’ fees to transfer two others to the Church School.
The Village has a lovely old timber framed house five frames wide (medieval buildings were only as wide as a tree would grow – about 40 foot).  Most is still “wattle & daub” with some brickwork infill.  As it’s on the Coventry Road I would guess that it spent part of it’s life as a coaching Inn at the back are plenty of out buildings for horses, hay and other necessaries.
One minor niggle – the shower pump has packed up, I’ve checked it’s got power (I can hear it humming), that the diaphragms are ok (following the instructions in the hand book I took it to pieces) and after re-assembly (with no parts left over) still won’t work.  I used a suction bottle and a ‘magic sponge’ from the Crick show to dry out the shower and will have to call Peter tomorrow.
Monday – started out early as there are ten locks to go down.  Just after starting I passed “Up Spirits” Braidbar number 102 who remembered me from last year.  The first of the locks are a staircase of two locks and I was ready to start at 09:15 and through that by 09:50 I then decided to be nice, a British Waterways traditional pair (boat ‘Atlas’ with butty ‘Malus’ were just entering the staircase so I stayed moored while they went through.  There was also a pair of cruisers so I let them through as well.  Another pair were next but by this time I had gone into the lock and the first boat to reach came on in.  It was ‘Hasty’ the replica steam powered tunnel tug built along the lines of the Grand Junction Canal Company for pulling horse drawn boats through the Braunston and Blisworth tunnels between 1871 and 1936.  We went on down together and at each lock I was breasted up and brought out of the lock.  It made the whole process easier.  At Fosse Lock there were dredging works being done by ‘Land & Water’ so a delay was inevitable.  By the time we got into the lock there were 4 others behind us along with boats coming up.  However, I had only planned to complete the ten locks so at lock 23 ‘Hasty’ and I parted company.  I went on a little to find a mooring spot and was met by the winter coal delivery man from Uxbridge; I have his card to get in touch.
The call to Peter produced a result, the pump had “lost it’s prime” and needed water poured the wrong way.  I’ll know for next time.  The weather has been sunny with a few cloudy patches all day I’m back down to a vest!!