Through the Locks & on to Polesworth

The problem at Lock Number 6 was fixed by 1:30pm on Sunday, but by that time we had arranged for friends Carol & Ted to visit as we had not seen them for quite a while. The weather forecast was not good so we had decided to stay put for the day, however by the afternoon the weather had improved and by the time our friends left we considered doing the locks in the late evening sunshine. We decided, however, that as tomorrow morning’s forecast was OK we would wait… it turned out to be a bad decision!

We started off before 9am Monday morning (yes, I know!) and no sooner than we reached Lock No 1 it started to drizzle! On the plus side a boat had just come up the flight so all the locks were in our favour and only a couple needed topping up due to leakage. Lock 6 has a working side pond, these ponds are water saving devices which can save half a lockful of water each time a boat goes through, if the boater understands how to use them. Working side ponds are so rare now not everybody does!

The locks completed, we pressed on to Grendon Bridge where we topped up with water and disposed of rubbish. On the way we passed Grendon Dock, still with the old butty moored alongside. The half timbered cottage there  seems to have had a later extension removed, hopefully it will be restored it’s to former glory.

We had intended to moor up at Polesworth to do some shopping but the only two spaces were both marginally too short for us, so we continued, past Pooley Hall and found a space on the visitor mooring at Pooley Country Park. You can’t miss the pithead winding wheel marking it out from the canal.

Although difficult to visualise it now, “Pooley Country Park was once Pooley Hall Colliery which became the North Warwickshire Colliery in 1951 when the mine workings from Alvecote, Amington and Pooley met underground. It was the first mine to generate its own electricity (from excess steam) in the early 1920s, and also the first to have pit head baths, which were opened in 1928. Former Pooley and North Warwickshire miners have donated memorabilia, which can be seen in the Visitor Centre.”

The main reason for our stop here was to collect our wonderful newly painted doors from the fantastically talented Penny Taylor-Beardow who has a mooring in the old colliery loading wharf. Aren’t they wonderful?

This morning it was a shopping trip down to the village  on my bike.