The Ashby Canal

CanalsNarrowboats

4 Dec

Saturday 4th December

Today we moved onto a new (to us) canal - the Ashby. It was a pretty cold cruise but so lovely to be on a brand new canal. It’s lovely and rural and so far the only downside is that we are back with very muddy towpaths!

We moored up after bridge 32 where the internet and Wi-Fi are pretty good - we had done a recce a few days earlier to check and also to check car parking spaces.

The Ashby Canal

The Ashby canal, which was once 30 miles long, used to be a very busy coal-carrying canal in its day. However, the success that the coal mining trade brought to the canal was also its downfall. From 1944, mining subsidence caused the closure of the last 8 miles, leaving just the 22 miles from Marston Junction to just north of Snarestone.

If you want a relaxing cruise in beautiful rural surroundings where you can moor up in the middle of nowhere, and with no locks to do, then this is the canal for you. It can be rather shallow in places and it is recommended that you only moor on designated mooring spots if you don’t want to risk getting stuck at the edge!

Our first mooring just after Bridge 32 is literally just down the road from Dadlington where there is a really good pub called The Dog and Hedgehog. The staff are all lovely and welcoming and it’s so dog friendly - Tilly and Winston were spoiled rotten with treats! There is also a good selection of locally brewed ales. The meals are pretty expensive but the food looked delicious and it was always very busy so I’m sure it’s worth it.

Friday 10th December

Paul and Tilly cruised to Sutton Cheney Wharf to fill up with water and turn the boat round, while I took Winston back home to Chantelle and then took Pops to the crem, town and Morrisons- we had a lovely breakfast at the garden centre near the crem.

We are now moored between bridge 27 and 28 next to Bob and Rosemary. It’s a short walk into Stoke Golding where there are three pubs, a farm shop and an Indian restaurant.

Tonight we walked into the village and had a couple of pints at the Three Horseshoes - great pub and we met George there who is on NB Narrow Escape - also moored near us, so that was good. On the way home as we walked past the White Swan, we chatted to a chap stood outside, who turned out to be the landlord! We went in for a pint of very good Wainwrights and although the pub was very quiet it was lovely to sit and chat to Martin (the landlord). Another of the three pubs is the George & Dragon, great pub also with a great selection of real ales.

There is a small shop in the village but there are also large supermarkets in Hinckley - about a 3 mile walk away.

Stoke Golding has an impressive Grade I listed Saxon church, that of St Margaret of Antioch, by the mid 12th century a Norman Benedictine Chapel had been established. Huge blocks of stone from Attleborough would have been quarried and then transported miles by horse and cart, once in the village the stone had to be lifted into place by hand and with pulleys and ropes. Masons were employed to carve the and decorate the stonework. In 1485 the battle of Bosworth was fought and it is believed that villagers watched the battle from the church tower. (maybe myth rather than fact). Following Richard III’s death in the battle Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII on nearby “Crown Hill”. Although the tower and spire were completed in 1340, the spire was dismantled in 1943 and stored due to the danger of planes hitting it as they approached RAF Nuneaton/Lindley. The spire was rebuilt in 1947 with floodlighting being added in 1996.