A jaunt for some jazz
Crick Marina - Welford Junction – Foxton Top – Welford Junction – Welford-on-Avon – Welford Junction – Watford Top – Crick Marina
“It’s always important to have a destination, isn’t it?” said the single-hander lady boater, adding, “even if it’s only on a walk… She seemed an intrepid soul, having been to Greenland in February (“I had to get there before Trump does,”) and during the course of a lengthy towpath conversation referred to travels in Nepal and Bhutan, Patagonia and Antarctica - and Egypt. (“I must see the new Tutankhamun museum in Egypt, next to the Pyramids,” she added.)
Boatwif had had a destination in mind too, as justification for a journey. A pub with some elderlies playing daytime jazz is hardly exotic however…
In these drought-stricken times when canal locks are operating only on restricted hours or are closed altogether destination choices are severely limited. For those boaters up on the Leicester summit there are 22 miles of unimpeded travel between Watford Locks to the south and Foxton Locks to the north.
So, mindful not to get stranded below any lock flight, Cleddau and crew set off from Crick Marina and headed north for Foxton.
Just being “out on the cut” is a joy. No feeling of being enclosed by the four walls of a house or by boats on neighbouring pontoons - just natural space…
Fields have been harvested earlier than usual this year; with no rain in the offing the tractors and combines have already cut the crops, stacked and stored them. It was a visual delight though to see rounded hay bales still out in the Northamptonshire fields…
Further along the fields show evidence of having been worked by precision machinery…
Interest was roused by the names on these two boats: nb Bartholomew Roberts 1682 -1722has been spotted before, moored on the arm that leads to Market Harborough. But in March its name appeared again in a very different context, as a Pembrokeshire-born pirate, his name recorded at the West Wales Maritime Museum. (See final topic in this post here: https://www.boatwif.co.uk/boat-update/donations-at-5169n-0493w). It makes you wonder why a boat has been given a particular name…
Then here was a boat name not spotted before: Pooh Sticks. What a delightful and familiar image, especially appropriate to see on a hot and lazy summer’s day!
Mid-afternoon a convenient mooring on the embankment near Welford Junction seemed a good place to moor up. A high hedge on the towpath side and plenty of growth opposite provided useful shade. Throughout the day the media had been talking up the prospect of the early evening’s partial solar eclipse.
While ducks squabbled and splashed in the wider waters of the Junction Boatwif set off round the corner to identify a viewpoint.
(Look! A mechanised kite-cum-bird scarer)
A stile gave access onto Bridge 42, a location with a view across the Avon valley.
Early evening, equipped with a colander, the Cleddau crew followed the towpath round the junction, climbed the stile – and found another pair of boaters had already set up their eclipse watching pitch. They were better prepared with a pinhole paper camera and a camera on a tripod. They had seen the1999 total eclipse in Cornwall, they said, when they were dairy farmers there…
Partial eclipse as seen through a colander
And during this partial eclipse the light in the sky dimmed, the birds ceased their chatter but the cows in the field below continued their steady grazing.
It was a left at the Junction for Cleddau the next day and past North Kilworth Wharf.
No unplanned dunking here this time, (unlike last July…https://www.boatwif.co.uk/boat-update/immersions-various ).
On through Husbands Bosworth tunnel – never was a canal tunnel transit so enjoyed! Twenty minutes or so of blissful cool and comfortable temperatures before re-joining the searing heatwave outside…
A pair of grasses-filled walking boots on a boat roof brought a smile, Boatwif recalling her own walking boots on soil at home, almost hidden by a sturdy holly bush.
Onwards, reaching the glorious Laughton Hills, the slopes now yellowed and parched, the trees dark splodges on a pale palate.
The last stretch in towards Foxton is a passage between twisted and overhung branches – pray one does not fall and block the navigation…
And then the cruise destination lay ahead, Foxton Locks. Cleddau was turned round, her water tank refilled and an overnight mooring secured in shade just after Bridge 60.
Foxton is a site much visited by boaters and gongoozlers alike. There is nothing so pleasurable as following a boat’s progress up or down the locks, in sunshine, a cool ice cream cone in hand.
But these are strange times and due to water management plans the lock flight is open for navigation only between 8am and 12 noon on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays*. On a Thursday afternoon all was eerily quiet – locks closed, ice-cream and coffee takeaway café closed, pre-loved books room closed, the little shop at the bottom of the hill closed…
The sculpture trail was open though. There is a lot to explore around Foxton, and more recently a series of wooden wildlife sculptures have been installed along the route to the Inclined Plane (Boat Lift) Museum.
Would Friday bring the visual and aural delights Boatwif craved…?
“We’ve had three up and three down this morning so far,” explained a duty lock keeper mid- morning on Friday. And it was good to see two boats slowly climbing the hill.
At the bottom of the ten lock flight the canal bears left for the main line to Leicester and right towards Market Harborough. A small clutch of buildings includes Foxton Locks Inn https://www.restaurantfoxtonlocks.co.uk/ and this pub was the trip’s real Destination. Every Friday is ‘Jazz Fridays’. Have a drink or a bite to eat between 12.30 and 2.30pm on a Friday and enjoy the atmosphere of smooth and gentle music played by J for Jazz. What a success: an outdoor table in shade, a chance meeting with Tim of nb Nice Butt (he who had been such a stunning lock partner up the Leicester double locks in May 2022, a tasty lunch and some very light and upbeat musical background. Perfect!
Tim, of Nice Butt, assisting the Cleddau crew up the locks out of Leicester, May 2022
J for Jazz members setting up for a Friday lunch-time session
Back up the hill the crew had to walk, the heatwave’s impact still severe. Up past the icebreakers and the Museum; up the steps to the viewpoint over the inclined plane and in some shade stroll back to the boat.
An icebreaker boat - crew would rock the boat from side to side to break up the ice in the canal
Boat untied, the Captain set off back along the summit level on a quest to meet another Destination deadline. Just under three hours later the lovely Laughtons had been passed again, an occasional Living Milestone tree spotted and a mass gathering of canal workboats squeezed past at the northern portal of the Husbands Bosworth tunnel.
Living milestones mark the mileage from
For how many miles had Cleddau been pushing a large clump of reed and tree branch…?
Into Welford-on-Avon on Saturday, to buy a weekend newspaper.
There was the excitement of 1 lock to get through; would there then be mooring space? Another boat pulled out ahead and slowly lead the way to the terminus. It was a confusing picture – two boats occupying the two moorings at the wharf, a boat on the water point and some rope throwing from the helm of the boat ahead. By pre-arrangement a weekend party was in the making; soon four vehicles (from very large motorhome to very small white van) had gathered on the grass on the wharf green. While mild music occasionally drifted from their encampment during the day it was at 7pm that the volume suddenly rose. The Wharf Inn is a popular pub and eatery. Its large beer garden has 50 or so tables and on Saturday night a rock band was playing to the customers. So the Cleddau crew encountered two live music events on two successive days in very rural Leicestershire…
Saturday night performers in The Wharf Inn beer garden
Welford visitors are likely to spot two iconic figures at the bottom of the High Street.
Rear view of Postman Pat , as recognised when a local canal and field walk ended behind them…
The Pocket Park, always so full of early flowers in spring-time, lacks colour now – and the dipping ponds lack water. Were any water creatures surviving here?
Back to Welford Junction on Sunday and a left turn, back towards and past Crick.
Often passed but never paused at is the wooden “coffee table”, a timber round mounted on a wooden post near Fieldside Covert Wood. What an excellent height it is as support for a drink or book.
Striking texture in the woodlands
After an overnight mooring Cleddau set off southwards again to get as far as she could, to the top of Watford Locks, which like Foxton Locks, are closed now until Friday morning.
Passing Crick Waterside Marina
Good tomato crop here
Information board for Crick Wharf’s new business
Exiting Crick Tunnel’s southern portal, another boat approaching
Cleddau was turned round at the winding hole just before the M1 bridge.
It was Monday and this was the sign at Watford Top Lock.
Watford lock flight devoid of boats and boaters
Waters were retraced now and not for the first time Cleddau found herself moored overnight by the Leicester 38 mile sign…
It took a bare hour to return to base the following morning. Had the jaunt during Heatwave Number 5 been worth the effort? Absolutely: gentle jazz accompaniment during a waterside pub lunch and several towpath dinners with only the ducks and the sheep for background company…
* Latest C&RT update: Watford & Foxton Locks are to be closed indefinitely from 1st September until reservoir water levels have been restored.
Monkton Moments* (Monkton Moment*- a reference to / recognition of Cleddau’s Pembrokeshire connections): Plus 1 (2026 total: 4)
Trip Stats: 46 miles; 1 lock (twice); 2 tunnels ( both twice); 7 nights afloat; 5 towpath dinners.
