Return to the canals

Stratford Canal Basin

During yesterday we moved the boat off the river into Stratford canal basin. as we wanted to get an early start today on the 16 locks to our planned stop.

Last night was a chance for another meal out. The choice this time was the Coconut Lagoon , a South Indian restaurant with a good rating on the internet (www.qype.co.uk is reliable in our experience). Again qype proved accurate, very good food and a different menu to the standard Indian. Also as qype said it was a little expensive, but I guess Stratford being a tourist centre, that is to be expected.

Densie entering a lock

A narrow bridge - will we get through?

We left the basin at 8am this morning and quickly started on the locks on the Stratford Canal. As a couple of boats had got out before us we were expecting to be stuck in a queue at each lock, especially as this is a narrow canal, only with locks only wide enough for one boat. Fortunately this did not prove to be a problem, and the steady stream of boats coming down the locks hoping to moor in the basin for this weekend's Water Festival ensured that most locks were empty when we needed to enter.

After a hot morning, feeling a bit tired after the unaccustomed exercise, we moored at 12:30 at Wilmcote, a village some 3-4 miles from Stratford. And this is where we stayed for the rest of the day.

Mary Arden's House

In the afternoon we walked into the village and looked around the Tudor "Mary Arden's House" (Mary Arden being William Shakespeare's mum) and the adjoining tudor farm where a good range of old farming tools, other rural bygones and old farm animal breeds were on display. Well worth a visit. I did notice there was no specific mention of the inconvenient problem that according to our guidebook Mary Arden actually lived next door.