Atherstone's "Yards" and Great Lockwheeling Teamwork.

Friday 16th October, 2015 above Glascote Locks.
A pretty early morning sky greeted us and gave us hope for a good day, weatherwise.

We set off after breakfast and cruised up to Atherstone. where a Costa stop was a must!

We are very fond of Atherstone, which has a strong 18th century feel to it and a very attractive market square.

Atherstone was a centre of hat making, but the Enclosure Act of 1765 prevented expansion outside the town with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution. The result was that factories and houses had to be packed within the town boundaries.  From the 1780s, tiny "one-up, one-down" houses were crammed into the centre of town grouped back to back in "Yards". Each "Yard" was accessed by a narrow door on the street with a passage leading to an equally narrow yard with houses on both sides - maybe 20 houses with a hundred occupants sharing one pump and an earth closet.

There were 53 such Yards crammed into the shadow of the factories whose tall chimneys belched out smoke and whose felting hammers could be heard all over town. The houses were rented and demolition orders were not popular with landlords. The last Yards were demolished as recently as 1965 but many of the entrance doors can still be seen.

Many of the buildings on the street next to the entrances were originally pubs and the Yards would be named after them - as in this case: "Druids Arms Yard".
Fortified by Costa coffee, we set off into the top lock of the Atherstone flight of 11 locks.

The cast iron post of the paddle gear indicates its age although it is brand new compared to the locks, which were completed in 1790.

 Lock number nine of eleven - nearly there.

This was a very pretty bridge - although it does appear to be lacking anything to walk on!

At last the final lock. As we have done more than 300 locks this year, we are getting quite good at it and averaged only 10 minutes per lock down the flight with more than half of them set against us. Good teamwork!

We've always maintained that one of the biggest pleasures of our summer cruising is the people we meet and the conversations that we have. Our "Many Meetings". This was particularly true today; coming down the flight we firstly encountered a couple from Brisbane, on an English narrowboat for the first time and loving it. Then we met two couples, each with a brand new boat on their first ever cruise and both couples so proud and happy as Larry (we know that feeling!). The first of the two was called "Mistress Quickly" (with a nod to Shakespeare) and the second was Tipsy Gypsy. Lovely.
A sudden clamour on the towpath proved to be a gathering of twenty plus young partridges, rushing hither and thither in a panic as we passed.

We tied up for the night just above Glascote Locks outside Tamworth.

Today: 16 miles, 11 locks and 7.7 hours.
Trip: 482 miles, 335 locks and 359.7 hours.