The Ashby Canal

Saturday 3rd February
Watching the weather forecasts, all predicting a cold spell with freezing temperatures, we decided to move on and get to the Ashby Canal, we had booked our berth in Trinity Marina, in Hinckley from Monday onwards so wanted to get there before the cold set in. The day was cold and damp, but we wrapped up well and got underway, the canal was very quiet and we only passed one boat on our way down to the junction at Bedworth.

Marston Junction

The trip was enjoyable and we soon passed by the CRT yard at Hartshill and the moorings we stayed at on our trip to London in 2016. This area is dominated by the pointed heaps of quarry waste from the large granite quarries that cut into the hillside to our right. The canal meanders around the ridge maintaining its contour until the outskirts of Nuneaton are reached, we considered stopping here but as we pulled up onto the moorings we noticed that they were being used as a dog toilet and the concept of picking up dog waste does not appear to have reached this part of the world, we quickly moved on soon reaching Marston junction and the left turn onto the Ashby canal.
Canal myths say this is a very shallow canal with very limited moorings, however,  it soon became apparent that this was not the case, large portions of the towpath side are supported with pilings and therefore provide good mooring spots, we decided to pull up at the first official moorings close to bridge 6, the canal is shallow in places but no worse than many other parts of the system.
The following morning was frosty but the canal had not frozen so we decided to get as close as we could to the marina just in case the evening brought even colder temperatures, these moorings were quite pleasant just to the south of the A5 that bypasses the town center, we had a walk to the nearest co-op, about a mile from the mooring, to re stock, before returning to the warmth of the boat. The temperature dropped to around -3 through the night and we awoke to a partially frozen canal. We waited until most of the ice had melted, the sun now has quite a bit of warmth and it wasn't too long before we got underway, the short trip to the marina had to be undertaken carefully as we came across ice on some of the more shaded parts.
We pulled up outside the marina and took on fuel coal etc before been shown to our berth, a much easier position than that at our previous spot at Barton!
The marina has all facilities as well as a useful shop selling essential supplies as well as the usual chandlery. One useful feature was a container for dumping hot ashes, this is something all marinas should consider as it saves having to leave buckets of ashes outside the boat to cool down before being disposed of.
Hinckley
We spent he next couple of days exploring the town, the center is just over a mile from the marina but is well worth the walk, there is also a frequent bus service. On Tuesday we had a visit from Cox Automotive Electrics to service our Travel Pack generator system, we have become very reliant on this unit as it enables us to run the battery charger when the engine is running helping restore a full charge much more quickly than just relying on the engine alternator. They removed the whole system from the boat and took it away for a full makeover.
Later on we had arranged to meet Carole and Jim in the Lime Kilns, a small canalside pub by the A5 bridge. The food was ok with an extensive arrange of pies to choose from.

 We then went back into the town to explore a little further. The main street through Hinckley retains a number of local shops and has a market on Mondays. During our visit the bells of the parish church were chiming a redition of the national anthem! we also made our way to the railway station to purchase our tickets to Leeds, only to find that it closes at 1pm!
On Thursday we got a taxi back to the station this time making sure we arrived before it closed, and caught the train up to Leeds via a change at Birmingham.

Thursday 15th February
We made our return trip to Hinckley stopping off at the large Tesco adjacent to the rail station.
Thursday night was cold again and we awoke on Friday to a frozen marina, however the sun was bright and, we noted, quite high in the sky. Cox's returned and refitted the Travel Pack by which time the sun had done its work and thawed the ice.
We left our berth and moved on up the canal to moor at Sutton Wharf, these moorings are quite extensive with all boater services and a useful cafe bar.
On our way up we past the villages of Stoke Golding and Dadlington, both synonymous with the Battle of Bosworth, and now, after recent research, are close to the actual site of the battle.
Reaching this area was something I have been looking forward to for sometime as I have developed an interest in the medieval period as we have been travelling along.

Ambion Hill looking towards the battlefield

The moorings are close to the Battlefield Heritage site, now, unfortunately for them, some 2.5-3 Km's from the actual site, on Saturday we had a walk up to Ambion Hill to stand and look at the view across the fields, a view that the Yorkist Royal forces must have taken in, however they were staring at the rebel army of Henry Tudor, soon to be victorious and take the crown of England.
We decided to move on the following morning our plan being to get to the end of the canal, turn round and make our way back slowly visiting the villages on our way. The latest weather forecast is, again, predicting a cold easterly blast due to start in around a weeks time, this means we may have to move on faster than we would have originally wanted as we want to get down to Coventry then back up to Atherstone, where we will be able to sit out any cold spell and frozen canal.
We had a good cruise up the canal on Sunday, near the village of Congerstone we came across a fishing match, I slowed down and passed them on tick over, maintaining a course down the center of the canal, recalling our previous experience at Wigan, these fishermen were a lot more friendly and we had a good bit of banter as we passed by, probably because none of them had caught anything so our presence had presumably not made any difference. We  arrived at the terminus just beyond Snarestone Tunnel, here we turned around, passing through the tunnel again to moor up just below the village. Snarestone is a very quiet village with no facilities, other than the Globe Inn. (note for boaters, there are full CRT boater services at the winding hole at the Terminus.)

Ashby Terminus

Snarestone Tunnel

We had Sunday lunch in the busy pub and I would think it advisable to book later in the year, we enjoyed our lunch before returning to the boat.The weather was really mild and we noticed that the night was much warmer than any we had experienced for sometime.

The Globe, Snarestone

Monday 19th February
The day brought rather dull and miserable conditions more akin to November, but the rain was light and we moved back down the canal retracing our steps to the village of Shackerstone. We pulled up here and had a quick walk around the village, a very pretty but quiet place with the remains of an old Motte and Bailey castle along side the canal.

Shackerstone Castle

We returned to the boat and moved onto our next stop at Market Bosworth. This was our overnight mooring and we walked the mile up the hill into the town. Just up from the canal we passed the site of the Churchill Aircraft Factory, this was moved, along with its staff, from Coventry, following the blitz. It is now and Industrial Estate but there is still a Churchill Factory here specializing in precision engineering.

The town itself was very quiet, probably because Monday is half day closing. The market square is dominated by the Dixie Grammar School reminding us of the atmosphere at Repton, visited earlier in the year.

Dixie School

Chip Shop pun - The Batter of Bosworth 

Bosworth High Street

Tuesday morning brought sunshine and a mild start to the day, as we were preparing to set off the fuel boat approached and I flagged him down to buy some coal. These guys provide a really useful service and travel the cut in traditional working boats supplying coal, gas, and diesel.
We were soon under way, arriving at the peaceful moorings between Dadlington and Stoke Golding in the early afternoon. The moorings are about as close as you can get to the newly defined site of the Bosworth battlefield and both villages played their part in the battle. Dadlington is the location of the church, known as the Battlefield Chapel, consecrated by Henry VIII 1511, in the graveyard are several mounds indicating the location of the burials of many of the soldiers that died during the battle.

Battlefield Chapel - Dadlington

Stoke Golding also has a church, this was founded in the 12C so would have been there in 1485 and it is difficult to believe that Henry VII would not have taken thanksgiving prayers here following his victory however there are no records of this happening.

Stoke Golding Church

Burial Mounds - Dadlington

 The village is also the location of Crown Hill where the new King was crowned with Richard III's battle crown salvaged from the field. Henry went on to rewrite history to try and strengthen his tenuous claim to the Crown whist establishing the great Tudor dynasty. He also proceeded to marry Elizabeth of York again giving more credence to his claim.

The weather forecast continues to threaten the cold snap, due to arrive in a few days time. We decided to leave the Ashby on Wednesday and head on down to Coventry. The trip down was very pleasant, with the birds singing away in the hedgerows whilst busily preparing their nests. The daffodils are now starting to flower and crocuses adding a splash of colour to the white patches of snowdrops. It really did feel like early spring despite the gloom and doom forecast.

Spring Flowers

Passing the marina at Hinckley, we soon arrived at the junction with the Coventry canal at which we turned left heading south to Coventry basin. We have been along here before but always turned off at Hawkesbury junction (know as Sutton Stop to the boating world), on this occasion we continued south heading along the five miles into town. This stretch is avoided by many as it has a bad reputation, we found it a pleasant cruise with just one mile where the rubbish was every where. For some reason people around this stretch tie bag fulls of rubbish to the railings at the side of the canal along with large quantities of plastic floating on the surface even though there are waste bins around.   I slowed down through these areas but still managed to pick stuff up on the prop a couple of times, fortunately these were removed by a burst of reverse.
We are now moored in the town basin, it seems quite enough, and there are a few other boats around as well a large fleet of hire boats. We intend to spend Thursday here before moving back to Atherstone to sit out the cold spell.

Typical Ashby scene

Coventry pics to follow