After a week near the building site at Rugby being sandblasted by the wind blowing dust and sand all over Oakfield, we decided to move on. We stopped at the watering hole to fill the empty camels humps and wash some of the sand off the boat, turned by Willow wren, then made our way southwards. It was an ideal day for cruising along in the sunshine, made even better because the wind had dropped too. It felt so good as we drifted along sipping hot drinks and nibbling biscuits. Other boaters had obviously thought the same thing and we met quite a few on the move today.
We arrived at Hillmorton Bottom Lock to see that BW were just finishing off the installation of the lock gates and beginning to pack everything up.
The bottom pair of cast iron lock gates were removed last October and taken away for refurbishment at a cost of £40,000 so the BW workman told me. They are grade two listed and only one other pair are still in existence, the others are at Claydon. They were installed 170 years ago, will they last as long again I wonder? Btw a set of new oak lock gates costs from £15,000 to £20,000 to make.
He was just fitting the new metal handle to the top of the beam as we passed through the lock on the far side. Looks as though BW have done a good job here, don’t the new gates look splendid? Now that is what I call a nice substantial bollard standing in the foreground of this picture! We were just enjoying afternoon coffee with ‘boat cake’ when Gosty Hill came alongside to tend to our fuel needs. We commented that this is one of the rare occasions when he has visited us during daylight hours! After chatting awhile we saw them off with a big chunk of boat cake for their tea, as they work such long hours.
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