Coxen Travels Ink .... England 2014

Coxen Travels Ink .... England

Beer

Adnams – Broadside – 5

Andwell Brewing Company – Gold Muddler – 4-

Banks’s – Oyster Ale – 4+

Bank’s Park  Brewery – Botanical Beer - 3

Bass – Premium Ale – 3

Bath Ales – Prophecy – 3+

Bathams – Best Bitter – 3

Bateman’s – Dark Lord – 4+

Bishop’s Castle – Three Tuns Stout – 4

Derby Brewing Company – 10 - 4

Bridonorth – Monarch’s Way – 4

Burton Old Cottage Beer Company – Stout - 5

Burton Old Cottage Beer Company – Oak Ale - 4

Burton Old Cottage Beer Company – Halcyon Daze - 4

Caledonian – Trojan Horse - 5

Derby Brewing Company – 10 – 4-

Derby Brewing Company – Business as Usual – 4-

Dow Bridge – Centurion – 4+

Everards – Beacon - 4

Flipside Brewery – Dark Denomination – 5

Fuller’s – London Pride – 5-

Greene King – Abbott Ale – 4+

Greene King - Ruddles County – 4

Gun Dog Ales – Lord Barker – 5-

Hardys & Hansons – Kimberley Bitter - 3

Harviestoun – Old Engine Oil - 5

Hobsons – Best – 3

Hobsons – Champion Mild – 4+

Hobsons – Town Crier – 4-

Holdent’s – Golden Glow – 4

Joshua Tetley – Dog & Doublet - 4

Jennings – Sneck Lifter – 5-

Liberation Brewery – American Brown Ale - 4

Ludlow Brewing Co. – Stairway – 3+

Marston – Oyster Stout - 5

Marston - Pedegree – 4

Moorhouse’e – Black Cat - 3

Mr Grundy’s Brewery Derby – Lord Kitchener – 5-

Newby Wyke Brewery – Bear Island – 3

Nottingham Brewery Ltd – Rock Mild - 4

Oakham Ales – Citra - 3

Oakham Ales – Inferno – 4+

Prescott – Chequered Flag - 4

Purity – UBU – 4-

Purple Moose Brewery – Myrica Gale – Bog Myrtle Ale – 4+

Ramsay Brewing – Village Elder - 3

Robinson's - Unicorn Premium Ale - 3+

Sadler’s – - JPA (Jack’s Pale Ale) – 4+

Sadler’s – Mud City Stout – 5-

Shepherd Neame – Bishops Finger – 5-

Sharps - Doom Bar – 4

St Austell – Bucket of Blood – 4+

St Austell – Tribute – 4+

Taylor Walker – 1730 – 4

Timothy Taylor – Havercake Ale - 3

Theakston – Old Peculier – 4-

Thwaites – Wainright – 3-

Timothy Taylor – Landlord – 4

Warwickshire Ales – UBU – 4+

Wood Farm Brewing Co. – Webb Ellis – 3-

Wye Valley Brewery – Butty Bach – 4+

Wye Valley Brewery – HPA – 3

Wychwood – Hobgoblin - 5

Wychwood – PileDriver - 3

Wychwood – Pumpking - 4

The Rev. James -  4+

Cider

Abrahall’s – Lily the Pink – 4

Addlestones – Cloudy - 3

Crofter’s – Cider – 4

Farmhouse Perry – Two Trees – 4

Gwynt Y Ddraig – Dog Dancer - 3

Lilley’s Cider – Merry Monkey – 5-

September 26 - October 2

Well we arrived in Manchester at 07:30 hrs right on time.  Ed was at the airport to meet us (much appreciated as we were exhausted after 16 hours in the air and a few on the ground in Dubai).  We headed out to Wandering Canuck and got installed.

What a great day to be on the canals!

 It is GREAT to be back on the canals again .... just relaxing.  Saturday we motored down from Kidsglove to Stoke-on-Trent (pottery country).

Two bottle kilns that are no longer used, but are part of the landscape!

I found a sim card that will give me unlimited data for my phone!!  Sunday after church, yes that is right church we started down the Caldon Canal. The Caldon Canal is very beautiful, but very narrow in places.  In Consall the train station even was built partially over the canal.

Consall train station is built partially over the canal making it even narrower.

We went all the way to Froghall, yup that is the name!

Wednesday, we started south on the Trent & Mersey canal, but did not get far as we stopped at the Wedgewood Museum and factory .... need I say more. Thursday was a long day of cruising, Pat had an afternoon snooze.  But along the way we passed under this beautiful Georgian bridge on the Trent & Mersey canal.

Bridge 82 on the Trent & Mersey canal.

October 3 – October 9
Friday we cruised into Penkridge on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal.  Had a pint in 'The Boat', right on the side of the canal.   Saturday morning it was raining so we headed to the local Saturday market.  It was good, around noon it stopped raining so we hopped in the boat had moved to Coven.  Sunday we got an early start and did 10 hours of cruising, ending up in Kinver.  We walked into town for some supplies, we were out of chocolate, and then had a pint at The Vine!  Monday ….. Rain!!  Nick came for a visit, and his presence was a real joy.  We hopped in his car and went to the Anchor in Caunsall.  It is a pub that has cobs (buns with meat in them) as its speciality at lunchtime.  It was packed; we were lucky to get a table.  We had a good time their and them came back.  Nick needed to head home and we decided to go to the Kinver’s stone houses.  They are caves that have the opening bricked up and a door in it, different.

Does this not remind you of Bilbo's Shire?

Tuesday we did a run into Kiderminster and stopped at Sainsburys, it was 30 steps from the mooring on the canal.  Wednesday we moved into downtown, about a 15 minute run.

Waiting to pass through the lock

We wandered the town and really enjoyed the train station and the ‘Weaver’ a real ale pub!  Our mooring is now more like a 100 step trip to Tesco.  Lots of rain and cool weather.  Thursday morning it was raining like really hard at times.  At one point it stopped so we decided to go on.  At one point I was standing at our first lock and thinking it is clearing, as the sky was blue.  It started to rain and well just kept raining.  We arrived in Stourport after a couple of hours, it stopped raining and we headed out to explore. 

October 10 - 16

Friday we headed out onto the Severn River and down to Worcester.  Once in Worcester it of course rained for a bit.  While we were waiting for the rain to stop we had visitors … some swans.

I just could not resist this pose!

We then decided to check out the cathedral.

Worcester Cathedral

  Wow what a place.

Worcester Cathedral inside

Stained glass window

As Evensong was starting in just a few minutes we decided to take it in …. it was awesome!  Saturday we decided to stick around Worchester and have a look around.  We had a good time!  We started again in the Cathedral and had a good look around.  We then went downtown and it was great the sun was shining, the people were out and it was a great time.  We had lunch in King Charles II pub.  We had a lunch of pork pies, scotch eggs, crackling and pickles it was very good!  We then wandered through the ‘Tutor House’ and went to The Commandery. Both were excellent in their own way..  Sunday we got busy and started down the Droitwich Canal. We got as far as Droitwich and moored in their very new and nice visitor marina.  We wanted several people going the same way as us stop and water.  Monday it rained all day so we stayed in Droitwich and waited out the storm.  Droitwich is a very old, like millennia old community where salt was produced.  The techniques have improved over time, but it has been going on for a very long time.  Tuesday we moved on in preparation for the Tardebigge Locks (30 locks to climb the hill into Birmingham).  We moored at the base of the flight ready for tomorrow.  Wednesday – We were up early, well early for us 8 am!  We were into the first lock by 09:00 hrs.

Tardebigge Lock 1 - 09:00 hrs

The locks all but around 6 were set for us, and we roared through them.  We managed to be at the top 30 locks later in just 3 hours …. this has to be a world record.  10 locks an hour!!  We then proceeded to Alvechurch and moored up the weather was looking ugly.  Along the way we went through a couple of tunnels.  The Shortwood tunnel was especially beautiful on the exit.

Shortwood tunnel exit ... wow!

Thursday we headed into Birmingham, but stopped at Bournville along the way.  Bournville is the home of Cadbury’s.  Need I say more?  We visited Cadbury World

Cadbury World, see the smiles!

and were happy to take all of the samples that they handed out!  We then continued into Birmingham

Gas Street Basin on the way to our mooring in Birmingham.

and moored at the Cambrian Basin, which is right in the downtown of the city.

October 17 - 23

Friday we decided to spend the day exploring Birmingham.  We started out by visiting the jewellery quarter.  It had a nice museum that was our destination.  You might guess that this excursion was more important to one member of the group than the rest of us.  However, we were pleasantly surprised, by the tour of the museum. It turns out that the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter Museum was just walked away from in the 80’s by the ownership and the Council took it over and turned it into a museum.  It is right out of Dickenson!  Can’t believe that it existed right into the 1980’s.  It was very cool and we even got demonstrations on how the jewellery was made.  From there we wandered to the ‘Bullring Market’.  It is a huge market unlike anything in Edmonton.  You and buy anything here, but be careful what you pay.  Saturday we moved on and did way to many locks in the day.  We were all exhausted and stopped in Curdsworth.  It had an OK pub.  Sunday we moved on again and after encountering several, delays finished up at Fazley Junction.  We wandered down to the pub and Ed played the hero.  As we approached the lock we saw that a boat was waiting to enter the lock and one of the crew had fallen in the canal.  He was hanging onto the side of the boat and no one was making any effort at all to get him out of the water.  Ed went to the rescue and got him out of the water.  So far on this trip he has rescued a dog and a totally drunk man!  Monday – We moved to Burton on Trent.  This town is the beer capital of Great Britain; you can smell it in the air.  Tuesday – We stayed over in Burton as we had rain but more importantly wind.  Wednesday we moved on to Shardlow.  We visited the NewInn and had a great evening.  Thursday we took a taxi to the East Midlands airport and rented a car.  We traveled on a circuitous rout to Kidsgrove to pick up Ed’s car and move it to Braunston.  We drove through some very nice county especially Cromford and Peak District National Park.

Peak District, just to beautiful!

 

October 24 - 30

Friday we moved on to Loughborough.  This was a very old and character town, but it poured rain on us so we ran from place to place.  Saturday we moved on to Leicester.

Leicster at night

Now the big thing in Leicester these days is they discovered the grave of Richard III as they were building a new parking lot.  They are going to give him a state funeral in March and bury him once a again in the Leicester Cathedral. Sunday we moved on from Leicester and after a tough day of double locks stopped in Blaby.  It had several very old pubs that were centuries old, and both pubs had some newer Real Ales that were very good!  Monday was another tough day of double locks and we finally stopped on the side of the canal the closest community is Fleckney but it was too far to walk into.  The interesting part about today is that we finally found the picnic table on the side of the canal that we have been looking for.  We had some carpentry that we needed to do.  We bought the lumber several weeks ago, but today was the first chance we have had to rip and cut it.  We spent and hour and half moored to the side of the canal.  We have all the pieces cut now we just need to assemble them.  Tuesday we moved on to Market Harborough.  It has been a beautiful fall day that required only a T-shirt for most of the day!  The leaves are falling and the canals are beautiful.

Fall on the canals just outside Market Harborough

Fall on the canals just outside Foxton

Market Harborough is important to us as it was the first place that we rented a boat from way back in March 2007.  We had a GREAT trip on that occasion and we still love the canals.  Market Harborough is a great place to visit, as it has been a market town since 1203.  It is still a great place with lots of character.  But, today we decided to visit a Wetherspoons and they had ‘Old Engine Oil’ on tap!  My day was made!!  Wednesday – We woke to RAIN!  We waited until around 10 and it stopped raining so off we went.  We stopped in Foxton and went to the ‘Black Horse’ pub.  We were there 7 ½ years ago and had a great Ploughman’s Lunch.  We ordered the same and were not disappointed.  Upon leaving Foxton we moved onto the Foxton Flight of locks (the flight is 10 locks).Thursday – Was a long day of cruising, but we pulled into Crick around 16:30 hrs. The canal at this time of year is just beautiful.  The falling leaves and the warm weather is just awesome!

Foxton Locks from the top.

We were lucky and simply started right in.  Half way up it started to pour rain and we all got wet.  At the top we pulled into the first mooring and moved inside.

October 31 – November 6

Friday – We move on to Braunston today.  Along the way the scenery was just amazing, the fall leaves the sheep,

Baa, baa black sheep ....

the water.  We arrived around 16:00 hrs, Pat had some new experiences at the helm; she did a very long tunnel

Husbands Bosworth Tunnel entrace.

and met three boats in the tunnel, she also did a flight of 6 wide locks with some wind.  She did very well! The weather today was amazing it got up to 19C.  I can't remember the last time Halloween was that warm!  Saturday - We woke to some very strange noise outside the boat.  Turns out Ed was making some purchases from the coal boat.  He bought coal, propane and diesel fuel.  We then moved to a 14 day mooring as we are planning on not moving the boat any more, we will travel by car.  We had a fairly slow day but got lots done.  We went into Daventry and did some shopping and visited a pub (surprise!).  Sunday – We were off to Coventry.  In the first mile we had a tire blow out.  To big problems we just pulled over and changed the tire.  Coventry is an interesting place.  It was flattened by the Germans in the second world war.  The cathedral was hit with an incendiary bomb and burned out.  The tower and a few walls is all that is left. 

Coventry Cathedral today after it was hit in WWII

They have build a beautiful very modern looking church very close to the old one.  Monday - We headed into Northampton to deal with the car issues.  Ed needed an MOT inspection as well so he thought to take care of it all in one trip.  So while he was up to that Pat and I played scavenger hunt looking for Cask Mark Pubs. You can get an app for the iPhone, then you visit pubs and scan their QR code.  Once you have collected so many pubs you will prizes.  We found 5 pubs in our short time in Northampton.  Tuesday – Today was renovation day on the boat.  We drilled holes, removed some mouldings and installed some very cool led lights.  Wednesday – Back to Northampton and we got the car repairs completed.  On the way we stopped and looked at ‘Emmeline’ a narrowboat that turned out to be very nice.  Thursday – It was cold and windy, we did a walk through Braunston, visited ‘The Plough’ and then did a little on the boat renovations. 

November 7 - 13

Friday – We drove to Nottingham.  What a great city!  All three of us agreed that Nottingham is a place we would like to visit again.  We visited the castle and a couple of pubs, one perhaps being England’s oldest. 

England's oldest pub?

I reached the 25 Cask Marque pubs visited and Ed reached 100!  Saturday – Rain!  We spent the day doing boat renovations and a little grocery shopping.  Sunday – A glorious day, sunny and warm relatively, 11C.  We decided to go to the local Remembrance Day Ceremony.  We saw Ed ringing

Ed ringing in the Braunston church.

and were at the local ceremony.  The ceremony was the same and different than what we do in Canada.  The interesting part is today is not November 11^th, but the local ceremony was today at 3 pm.  .  Monday – we needed to turn the boat around so we headed to Hillmorton as it is the closest winding hole in the direction we were heading.  We had a beautiful day sunny and very nice.  We got back to Braunston and left the boat in the boat yard as Ed is getting the bottom blacked.  Tuesday – We are going to Devizes to visit with Nick and Chris.  As we love Oxford we stopped off for a visit there along the way.  Pat did a little shopping and we of course visited a few pubs.  I found another outstanding Porter – Café Phoenix.  Upon arriving in Devizes we spent a wonderful evening with our hosts Nick and Chris.  All in all a great day!  Wednesday – We did some exploring of Devizes visiting the Wadsworth Brewery centre and then had lunch in ‘The Crown’.  We then visited Lacock; a village that is so picturesque that it is used in movies like ‘Harry Potter’.  Thursday – Pat and Chris were off to Bristol for a quilting show.  Us guys stayed in Devizes and first did some exploring, as it was market day.  We then did a few renovations to Nick and Chris’s place.  The girls came back and we had a wonderful dinner followed by a great evening.