Fenny Compton to King's Sutton

(posted by Cath)

We were moored near to the Wharf pub, next to a field of rapeseed plants, just coming into bloom.  As we set off I volunteered to walk Charlie through "the Fenny Compton Tunnel", which is nothing of the kind.

Outside the marina, after a couple of hundred metres, I came across a nesting swan, blocking a large part of the towpath.  Charlie seemed very excited, and I was a bit worried that he might be daft enough to start an argument, but it turned out that he had spotted a duck on the towpath too.  We got past the swan with just slightly raised wings, and a bit of a hiss.  The duck jumped into the canal, and Charlie lost interest.

"Turnover Bridge" in "Tunnel" where tow-path changes sides/

Walking briskly along, keeping up with the boat, I was struck, once again, just how extra- ordinarily lucky I am to live in a beautiful country, and to have enough time, and money, to be able to indulge myself in the hobby of boating.

 

Second part of Fenny Compton "Tunnel"

Spring is bursting into life all around us, hedges are covered in white flowers, plants are blooming along the edge of the canal, in the fields are baby sheep and cattle.  Nature seems to have suddenly woken up in the last week - all except a few species of tree, ash included, which still hold bare branches towards the sky.

Charlie can always be persuaded to go searching up (or down) steep banks, you just have to suggest that he might be able to find Jumbones growing there (Jumbones are a favourite treat, he hasn't yet worked out that they don't grow wild). He never seems to find them, but is always happy to look, he hasn't yet realised that it is a ploy on our part to burn some of the excess energy our of our bouncy young dog.

What was this ramp and winch originally used for  ?

Today, while looking he found this interesting abandoned winch gear in the 'Tunnel.  It's only a short distance up the side, next to the towpath , but I have no idea what it might have been for.

We seemed to be going in the right direction, there were few boats going south, but at every lock there was a boat coming up, sometimes two or three in the same short pound, many of them hire boats - I suppose that we had got to the day that they all needed to turn back to the hire base.  The weather was changeable, but held off from raining, at least until the very end of the day.

Many of the fields we passed show the long low humps of medieval strip farming.  The canals are old, but the fields show signs of being so much older. It was the ploughing that caused these long humps over hundreds of years.  The ploughs were difficult to turn, hence the long fields.  By working in one direction, then the other, the soil steadily got turned towards the middle of the field, and into the long hump.  Long after the enclosures of the fields the canal came along, and cut straight across these fields.  Nowadays most of these fields are filled with sheep and lambs, with occasional groups of bullocks.  Those that are used for arable crops have had the hillocks ploughed flat long ago.

I didn't realise that Alan was watching for people that we 'know' from the Internet, that he was expecting to be passing us.  At some point he said that we should be looking out for "Harnser".  No, I said, I saw that a couple of miles back, going in the other direction. Oops!

Waiting for the lock in the centre of Banbury

We made good progress, and I went shopping at Morrisons in Banbury.  Being used to Waitrose prices this super- market always surprises me, and I staggered back to the boat carrying far too much.

We tied up near to the M40, and a railway line, hoping that the noise would die down a bit before we turned in for the night.  After a short shower of rain, David and I took Charlie for another walk, and discovered that some of the lift bridges cannot be lowered, with the balance beams held down permanently by metal structures.

A quiet meal at the boat, reading, or working on the computer, then bed.

Fenny Compton to King's Sutton
Miles: 14.2, Locks:14
Total Miles: 85.1, Total Locks:58