Hunkering Down

Sunday 15 September 2013

Earlswood to Hockley Green

2.5 miles, 0 locks, 0 swing bridges, 0 tunnels

No telephone service at Hockley Heath, so we are hoping to post this tomorrow!  Still no internet (we are at Lowsonford), so we have had to come to the pub to use the free WiFi!  The beer and wine are helping things along.  No details written about today, so that will have to follow in due course.

The forecast for today was dire, so we had gone as far as we could yesterday and set off fairly early this morning to get ahead of the weather front.  It worked! We were moored by 11am. 

But no cool coat needed today -the water resistant coat came out!

 Monty and I walked a good bit of the way and kept warm which is more than Chris did on the rear deck.  Just a very short run to Hockley Heath to be in position for the Lapworth Locks tomorrow.  We got the papers at the One Stop Shop in Hockley Heath (open all day every day).  Hockley Heath is a place with upmarket shops if not a particularly interesting town.

There is a McLaren

 and a Rolls Royce showroom

somewhere to get your swimming pool

  a ‘posh’ kitchen shop  

 you can only have your clothes cleaned if they are fine

 a Cantonese takeaway that has good write ups in Nicholsons – no picture I am afraid, but it is next door to the fish and chip shop and even that looks upmarket!

 

We went back to the boat, lit the fire and had a lovely quiet afternoon until it was time to take Monty for a walk to the first of the locks. It drizzled, but the real rain waited until we were back on board. There are three visitor moorings with bollards before bridge 25 at Hockley Heath – we got the second.  By the end of the day the last one was full with two Birmingham Canal Boats breasted up

and there were more boats on pins behind us and some the other side of  the bridge.   

We took Monty for a walk along to the first of the Lapworth locks and passed this rather splendig memorial.  Just sad that the man in question died at a relatively young age.

We had noticed that the Sunday carvery at the Wharf Tavern was just £5 so it seemed rude not to take advantage, but we were lucky we arrived at 6.55pm – service on a Sunday stops at 7pm!  The only meat on offer was beef - fine for me, but Chris had fish and chips and both were really good even though I was the last carvery to be served. 

Two questions for today:                                                                                                             

1.  The road running through Hockley Heath is Stratford Road – we spotted this house number and it was far from being at the end of the road, so is this the longest road in England?

 

2. Spotted just outside Hockley Heath – a gazebo and a garden, but where is the house?