We cast off at 11.00am and shortly thereafter had a disagreement with Bridge 50 resulting in some damage to both bridge and boat. The poor bridge came off second best.
I checked out the clearance when going through another of these bridges and there was less than two centimeters clearance each side.
We had some fitful sun between bouts of showers, downpours and hail. When the sun was out the views were lush
And the canal inviting
Coming into Wootton Wawen where we filled with diesel beside the little white building in the background.
We stopped in the aqueduct to access the diesel pump. Leaving Wootton Wawen
The next highlight or lowlight, if you are like me and don't like heights, was the Edstone Aqueduct
By this time the wind was quite strong and kept blowing us onto the left hand edge. When Lawrence tried to get the boat off the left hand side he had to oversteer to counter the effects of the wind, there would then be a momentary lull in the wind and Aqualife would suddenly lurch and crash into the right hand side and then ricochet back to the left again. This happened a couple of times , till I was completely unnerved and we decided it was safer and less scarey to let the wind keep us pinned to the left hand side and just scrape along it. It's 475' length seemed to take forever to get across.
Going over the River
The canal banks and hedgerows are getting more colourful. Two days to the start of summer.
The sun disappeared and we motored on through heavy rain and a hailstorm. I shouldn't say we because I retreated inside and left Lawrence to it. Mean I know, but he was wearing a full set of waterproofs and I wasn't.
Shortly after the storm passed we reached Wilmcote and moored up a tad before 2.00. We are less than 4 miles from Stratford upon Avon (probably less by road). However with 16 locks to negotiate and with more heavy rain predicted we decided to call it a day and use the afternoon to visit Mary Arden's House (the ma of the Bard).
"Thought for many years [since the 1700s - talk about English understatement] to be the home of Shalespeares mother,
it was discovered in 2000 that she actually lived 30 yards away at Glebe Farm". Which was clad in brick sometime in the 1800s.
What is known as Mary Arden's House wasn't built until 5 years after she had left the village and was owned by Adam Palmer!
The reason the Palmers house and outbuildings are so well preserved is that the complex was a working farm right up until they were acquired by the Shakespeare birthplace Trust in 1930. The Trust then unwittingly acquired the real Arden House in 1968 when they purchased it for preservation as part of the farmyard. The rear of Palmers farmhouse
Some of the outbuildings
The kitchen inside Palmers f.h. Unlike Warwick Castle the cook is real and making mince pies Tudor style.
Part of the ceiling upstairs
Lawrence negotiating a doorway
Piggies in the pigpen
More outbuildings and she is real too!
One interesting little fact I learnt today was the Queen Elizabeth 1st decreed that all her subjects had to eat salt water fish twice a week (not including Friday). The reason being that when her navy wasn't fighting someone, she didn't want to pay them so turned them into fishermen so the navy could pay for itself and the decree gave them a steady market so they could do so.
Back to Mary. She married one of her fathers tenant farmers, Richard Shakespeare, in 1557 and bore him 8 children of which Willy was the third.
That's all folks, other than to announce the winner of last nights quiz with the answer of a mole hill.
Katie. Tho I think she might have had some help from that Pommy partner of hers :)
So not much forward progress,today.
4 miles, 1 lock, 3 hours
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