Oxford Canal Walk – Leg 5
31 August 2017
Access: Start – walk to canal from overnight in Rugby. Finish – was going to be bus into Coventry + bus to car in Leamington Spa, but was lucky that someone offered to meet me and give me a lift back!
102 – 124 km Rugby (Clifton Road) – Hawkesbury Junction (Coventry)
What a difference a day makes! Back where I left the canal yesterday and the early morning sun was shining, the sky was blue, and yesterday’s drab autumn had changed back to mild late summer. Everything seemed brightly coloured, including the artwork on the first old railway bridge abutment (the Rugby to Stamford Railway1) a minute or two from the start of today’s walk.
I was still fiddling around with my phone and rucksack before setting off when NB “Opposite Lock” from yesterday came by. We chatted for several minutes as we went along before he slowed down for oncoming boats and we parted company.
Rugby has expanded over the canal, but even though there are industrial estates on both sides it’s still a calm and quiet walk. Dog walkers and joggers were making good use of the towpath. Before I’d left Rugby the far bank had become completely rural. The last bridge leaving the town, like the first coming in, celebrated the game named after the school and the town.
At this point I need to explain a little Oxford Canal history. The canal was built between 1769 and 1790, initially by James Brindley and after his death by his assistant and brother-in-law Samuel Simcock. The work started at the northern end and had reached Napton by 1774. Money troubles meant the final section to Oxford was not only delayed but built as cheaply as possible. Facing competition first from the Grand Junction Canal (1805) and then the railways the northern section was straightened in the 1820s, cutting almost 15 miles from the journey. This meant the canal no longer followed the contours of the land, and aqueducts, high bridges, cuttings and embankments are features of this section. Remnants of the old canal can still be seen in places as spurs leading to more modern marinas or as dead-end side arms. It also explains some of the missing numbers in the bridge numbering sequence and why this part of the canal has so many longer straight sections. There are three aqueducts in quick succession before the canal leaves Rugby; one takes the canal over the deep gorge of the River Avon, here just an overgrown channel.
Two miles and two more aqueducts later is The Barley Mow, just after Bridge 50. Immediately after I came to the most unusual feature of the whole canal walk, the Newbold Tunnel. This tunnel is 230m long and was built in 1829 as part of the straightening project. There are still remnants of the original tunnel nearby but I didn’t search for them. Unusually, the tunnel has a towpath on each side; most canal tunnels don’t have a towpath.
An explanatory notice at the tunnel entrance tells of an innovative lighting system installed in 2005 which casts a rainbow of light inside the tunnel. Sadly it wasn’t working as I worked my way carefully through, grateful for the handrail between me and the water.
The rest of the day was a pleasant stroll in the sunshine and shade, counting down the bridges, chatting to the occasional people I met. A yellow-jacketed mountain biker with fishing tackle who was planning to cycle round the UK coastline after he retired in a year or so (and yes, he knew it’s been done before – he’d read the book). A pony-tailed boatman whom I startled when I appeared from under a bridge on a bend who was prodding at trees with a boathook. It turned out he’d found three trees loaded with small ripe yellow damsons – the sort called mirabelles in France – and was foraging. He offered me one from his basket. Originally from Oxford, he’d sold his house and moved to the Midlands, buying his narrow boat with the spare money. He kindly offered me a lift as far as the Coventry Cruising Club Marina, but I explained I was committed to finishing on foot.
The later part of the walk became more dominated by modern developments and transport. Fly-tipping along the road by the canal through All Oaks Wood near Brinklow. The main railway line from Rugby to Nuneaton and Stafford which followed the canal closely for several miles, with Virgin and local trains rushing by every few minutes. The motorways; first under the M6, then the M69, and finally almost at the end of the day where the M6 runs alongside the canal for a mile, heard loudly, but hidden by a barrier of trees and scrub-land. Throughout, though, the canalside manages to keep a feeling of peace and life passing at a leisurely pace.
The very last part was strange. I kept thinking I could only be five minutes from the Junction, but I must have passed those five minutes three times! The canal goes through probably the ugliest part of its entire length, straight past a major electricity sub-station; a forest of transformers, cables and pylons, and then emerges into a green park area just by the last lock, Sutton Stop Lock, Hawkesbury Junction and the Greyhound pub! The walk was done.
Here’s my Viewranger track of leg 5:
1. The Rugby to Stamford Railway was built by the London & Birmingham Railway, which ultimately became LMS. The section from Rugby to Market Harborough opened in 1850 and was closed after the Beeching Report in 1966.