Canal Dreams

 

Not exactly spaghetti junction!

Criss crossing England, and to a lesser extent the rest of the UK, is a huge network of canals unseen by the vast majority of the population. The bulk of the main cross country links are still in good condition but many are disused and abandoned, built over by housing estates or grazed by farm animals. In some cases there are heroic restoration projects underway and long forgotten routes are being reopened. The grandaddy of British canals is undoubtedly the Grand Union Canal which stretches from London northwards to Birmingham in the West Midlands and Leicester in the East Midlands. With a total length of nearly 300 miles this is a lot of canal! Here's a photo I took of the junction of the Grand Union with the Oxford Canal in Northamptonshire whilst enjoying an early morning jog along the towpath. Yes it looks very peaceful and idyllic but just around the corner is a hive of activity with dozens of canal boats laid up for the winter or under repair in the marinas. Other boats have paused for a while on their journey across the country. The vast majority of traffic consists of pleasure barges in contrast to the industrial cargos transported in vast quantities two and three hundred years ago. canal side 

One thing common to all canal boats is that they're narrow and many of the locks and tunnels on the older canals can only accommodate barges up to seven feet wide. In fact many of the 30,000 plus boats on the canal network have been converted from commercial barges. The canal side industry today consists of boat hire and boat repair companies but also enterprises, such as tea rooms and ancient pubs now catering for the touring folk - here's the Gongoozler's Rest Cafe near Braunston at the junction of the Oxford and Grand Union. So what's a Gongoozler you might ask! You'll just have to look it up as I'm not saying.

We were in Northamptonshire for a big family wedding and, as our AirBnb accommodation was close to the canal system we were able to show our overseas visitors some of the very photogenic sights to be seen during a canalside walk. Here's the Admiral Nelson pub where we had a fine meal and the next couple of photos are from our very pleasant walk home in the gathering dusk.

Looking for buns!

The final snapshot for this blog post is from Abingdon-on-Thames. This is where ten of us wedding guests joined up post wedding to clear heads and enjoy a jolly jaunt on the riverbank by running in the Saturday morning parkrun. We explored the town on the previous evening and found ourselves by the Abingdon Country Hall a rather grand building in baroque style built in 1683. It looks fairly sedate here (8 pm on a Friday evening here) but on special days once every few years (e.g. Royal Jubilees) a throng of local townsfolk gather outside the hall hoping to catch one of the several thousand fruit buns thrown down by the town officials - a tradition that dates back to the coronation of George III in 1761!