Canal Cruising in Continuing COVID Times (Part 2)

 You left us last time as we were staggering back to Peggy Ellen after a 3/4 pub lunchtime session in a cool and damp Oxford. This gave us a couple of hours rest before we headed out into Jericho for the evening.

This was our mooring on the Oxford Canal and, after a short stroll over the cut, this (below) was to be our residence for the evening.

It was 7:30pm and, fortunately there was a small table available, right in front of the bar, so table service worked well for us. It is now as much a French restaurant as a pub, but they didn't mind that we only wanted to drink. We did get quite comfortable as it felt like we were back in a proper pub with some atmosphere for the first time on our trip.

Our plan had been to explore more of the pubs in Jericho, but we got so comfortable that we stayed all night...even pushing the boat out for some Garlic & Chilli Chips and a Tomato & Onion Salad to keep us sustained!

Next morning we were up and ready to resume our journey back to Napton, but there was the little matter of turning the boat. Our previous trips had been in the 35ft long Emma Jane which could be turned easily without leaving the canal. Peggy Ellen is 57ft long which necessitates the use of Isis Lock to descend onto a backwater of the Thames, turn the boat and negotiate the lock again to get back onto the canal.

This was our first real queue for a lock on the trip; we were fourth in line which is quite ironic as we were moored so close to it overnight! The delay was exacerbated by one boat not following instructions which resulted in them having to be towed away from the weir on Castle Mill Stream! To be honest, if the instructions hadn't been pointed out to me I'd probably have done the same thing!

This delay meant that by the time we reached The Highwayman we were too late for lunch as there was no food served between 2pm and 6pm!

So, it was another session of nuts and crisps washed down with cold lager. Not ideal, but we survived! It is also an hotel and it had fairly modern décor inside. By the time we'd downed our third pint it was way too late to expect to get to Lower Heyford and find a seat, so we made a momentous decision to have a 10 minute afternoon cruise to The Boat Inn at Thrupp. This time there was plenty of mooring space (which was filled within half-an-hour of us pulling up)!

Another long walk to the pub! We'd booked in advance because The Boat Inn is really a restaurant these days and a bit of a tourist destination as it has featured in "Inspector Morse" - indeed, we were seated in the Morse Room. This was another pub that closed when most people had gone home. Unsurprisingly we were last out! Not overly busy for a Saturday night; a combination of the weather and the pandemic restrictions I suspect.

 

Next destination, The Bell at Lower Heyford for Sunday lunch (booked in advance!)

The journey had taken somewhat longer than anticipated, but after ringing the pub from one of the locks, they held onto our table. It was quite busy and the Sunday lunch was served differently to anywhere else I've encountered before. Essentially, you bought a sharing platter for two (for £28-95p) and that was your Sunday lunch! It seemed to work and it was all cooked and presented well.

Our next stop, for Sunday evening, was Aynho Wharf. We knew that there was no way we'd get there before the 6pm Sunday closing time (not to be blamed on the pandemic as this was becoming increasingly common before the plague struck!)

 

Our plan had been to get a taxi into Banbury, but after an afternoon of cold and rain followed by an increased downpour shortly after we moored our plan was abandoned. There was no point in wandering around Banbury in the rain trying to find pubs that might be open...and boy, did it rain!! So, it was an evening of beer/lager and sandwiches.

 

Next day we were back in Banbury for lunch...and no guesses for which pub we visited!

It was even quieter than before, but it was a Monday lunchtime!

Our afternoon trip to Cropredy should have been fairly uneventful, but for the first time in many a long year, I was caught outside during a hailstorm! Whilst the hailstones weren't particularly large there were moments during the downpour that I couldn't see the front of the boat from my position on the tiller. We were in a lock, so this wasn't critical!

 

At Cropredy, the sun finally reappeared giving a lovely evening glow. To avoid the problems we had on the way down to Oxford, this time we'd made a booking!

The Red Lion was fairly busy again, mostly with diners, but discovered quite a few locals in the other rooms. The food was good and the landlady (same one as on our visit in 2019) was as attentive and chatty as ever. So, again feeling close to being back to normal.

Next day brought us the final, long leg back to Napton...unless The Wharf at Fenny Compton was open. (The landlady of the Red Lion seemed to believe that it was closed!)

 

As we passed by, it looked as though she was correct.

It didn't look open, but there was someone watering flowers so it may be on the way back. However, up-to-date internet information is not to be found. So, another lunchtime of sandwiches on the move!

Another pub we passed by (that was definitely open) was The Folly at the bottom of Napton Locks.

It is many years since we last stopped at The Folly - this time it was because our mooring is only half an hour away and the King's Head is only a short walk from the marina.

...and so this is where we finished our journey.

It's fair to say that the King's Head is more restaurant than pub, but I doubt that it would have survived in it's previous incarnation just as a pub that did food.
 

So, after a week-long trip how is hospitality holding up? We didn't manage to get into as many pubs as I expected and we missed more pub sessions than I thought we would. This was partly due to the route we chose as there are long stretches of canal with no pub making the ones that have survived even busier. It was also, in part, because we'd set off the day after the restrictions had lifted.

 

It was quite an eye-opener to see the magnificent efforts taken by those pubs with outdoor space to maximise that area with some fantastically inventive structures. Hopefully they will reap the rewards from their efforts.

 

Our next trip is planned for August - will the pubs be fully open by then? I would hope so, but given the record of this government and it's loose regard for consistency, who can say?

Canal Cruising in Continuing COVID Times (Part 1)

 For our first boating trip of 2021 we waited until indoor hospitality was open again, albeit under Summer 2020 rules. Our destination was Oxford on the basis that we hadn't been there (for a good session) in a long time.

Travelling from the boat's home marina at Napton-on-the-Hill presents a bit of a dilemma as the refreshment stops between there and Cropredy (9 hours cruising away) are limited. There is The Folly which is just half an hour from the marina and The Wharf at Fenny Compton which is about 4½ hours away, about which we had no information regarding it's status.

So, it was a lunch on board without stopping!

We arrived at Cropredy in plenty of time and it was a pleasant sunny evening. There are two pubs in the village; the Brasenose Arms which had been open (outdoors) for several weeks serving food to a massive garden.

Unfortunately for us, the chef has his day off on Tuesdays, so the pub building was closed and there was no food available...only drinks were being served in the garden.

We strolled round to the Red Lion only to find, unsurprisingly, that it was fully booked and we couldn't even get a drink! So, it was back to the Brasenose for a sumptuous fare of crisps, nuts, scratchings and not cold enough lager!

So, our first pint of 2021, inside a pub, was in Ye Olde Reine Deer in Banbury.

This time we found it without too much trouble and there was no problem finding a free table. It was disappointing that it wasn't busier, but it will take time to get back to some semblance of 'normal'. As many people are noting, the full range of (Hook Norton) beers wasn't available, but there was sufficient choice for us.

For the evening we'd already booked our table at the Great Western Arms at Aynho Wharf. Even before the pandemic, this had become an upmarket gastropub, but it was remarkably quite busy.

Our table was in the Lavender Garden which is a semi-outdoor area taking maximum advantage of existing outbuildings. All-in-all, a pleasant experience.

Our lunchtime stopping place for the next day was Lower Heyford. Unfortunately, The Bell doesn't open on Thursday lunchtimes and the Barley Mow was completely closed, awaiting new management. So, this was the venue for another sumptuous lunch!

A brief stop to stock up with essentials like cheese and corned beef for a beer and sandwiches lunch on board the good ship Peggy Ellen. Then we resumed our journey south - next stop Thrupp.

Along the way we passed by former "EastEnders" actor Phil Daniels and his boat Tuppence, moored in an attractive tree lined cutting, just before we came across the sad sight of the now closed Rock of Gibraltar pub.

It's a pub that I've never actually been into...and now never will!

After miles of canal where the pubs are half-a-day's cruising apart, you get to Thrupp where there are three pubs within a 15 minute walk of each other! There were no mooring spaces outside The Boat Inn, but plenty of room outside The Jolly Boatman!

This shows how close we were moored. It is a pleasantly run pub - they managed to find us a table, the food was good, the lager cold and they pre-warned us that closing time was dependent on how busy they were. In the event, it was around 10pm when they closed the bar allowing us a relaxed drinking up period. Luckily for us, the pub's one-way system led us out through the garden/smoking shelter, almost to our front door!

 

Next stop Oxford! It was another rainy day when we moored up in Jericho and strolled along the last few hundred yards of the canal and into the city. Dreaming spires, fantastic old and characterful pubs...you've guessed it though...Wetherspoon's Four Candles was our first stop!

Amazingly there was no queue, although there weren't many free tables. We were downstairs, so the technical glitch with their app didn't affect us as we got the table service, which worked very well. After a couple of pints and lunch we moved on in search of a pub that we'd been into in 1998, but remembered little else about apart from it's name - the Three Goats Heads.

What a fine pub it is and, unexpectedly, it's a Sam Smiths boozer! I'm not a fan of Sam Smiths Old Brewery Bitter, so I was on the lager and my travelling companion went for the OBB! Sadly, it wasn't very busy - most likely a combination of the pandemic restrictions and the fact that it was rainy and cold!

Next we wanted to find a pub that neither of us could remember the name of. We knew that it was a small corner pub close to one of the colleges and that it had a magnificent collection of ties. This is when a smart phone with a map is your friend.

As they used to say in local cinema adverts, "'ere Bert, this is the place!" We stepped inside The Bear and it was seemingly unchanged except that, in these curious times, it was full...with just three people inside! Sure, we could've had a drink in the 'beer garden', but what's the point? With the current rules, I don't know how many more pubs there are in a similar situation, because that just isn't viable.

Moving on, we found a lovely little pub that we'd never been to before for our last pint of the session.

The White Horse is somewhat TARDIS like in that it goes back a long way inside which meant that there was plenty of space for us! Obviously, no-one was drinking outside, but the rain had finally begun to ease. I don't really recollect too much about the interior other than it felt like a proper town pub...and they served food as well.

By the time we'd had a pint it was almost 5pm and so time for the long stroll back to the boat to 'prepare' for our evening session. As we walked back past the 'Spoon's we could see that a queue had formed. A little further on and we came to the terminus of the Oxford Canal...only a few more steps to our mooring!

(Next time - a night out in Jericho, a 10 minute afternoon cruise between pub sessions and a river almost in flood - stay tuned for more tales of "Canal Cruising in Continuing COVID Times"!)

#105 The Admiral Nelson, Braunston, Northants : 1980 to 2012

This is a pub from my very first canal trip, a journey that started at Woodford on the River Nene and took us to Coventry before returning to Woodford.

 At that time I wasn't taking a photo of every pub we visited, but the Admiral Nelson is an integral part of this picture of Braunston Locks taken on Tuesday 17th April 1980.

As a canal pub it is ideally located alongside one of the six locks of the Braunston flight. In fact, the next photo I took was of Matt bringing me a pint as we were waiting to pass through the lock!

We passed through Braunston many times after this first visit in 1980, but it wasn't until 1993 that I took another picture.

This was on Thursday 23rd September 1993 as part of a trip that took us from Winkwell to Stretton-under-Fosse and back. In those days, Emma Jane was moored at Winkwell near Berhamstead and our options were limited to heading north up the Grand Union Canal, seeing how far we could get in a week and turn round for the return journey.

I don't recall too much about our visits to the Admiral Nelson, except that it was a traditional pub with a Skittles Table that kept us amused.

We were back again the next year on the evening of Saturday 3rd September 1994, this time on the way back to Winkwell after having got as far as Fenny Compton on the Oxford Canal.

We didn't return to The Admiral Nelson for quite a few years as, after we'd moved the boat back to the Midlands, we didn't feel inclined to go back on the Grand Union Canal. It was 2001 when we ventured forth with a view to revisiting the lower reaches of the Grand Union. We'd moored below the locks and, after visiting the other pubs in Braunston, it was quite a stroll, along a dark lane (called Dark Lane!), to get to The Admiral Nelson which was under new management.

This was on Sunday 26th August 2001.

Over the years The Admiral Nelson has been shut and reopened on more than one occasion, so we tend not to plan a visit there, not knowing if it is going to be open.

This picture was taken on Thursday 10th September 2009 as we were passing. We didn't stop.

My final photo was taken on Sunday 30th September 2012 as I was on my way to play golf!

It was good to see that it was open and seemingly thriving, especially as a Morris Dancing troupe were enjoying some pre 'match' drinks! 

It would appear that the current owners have got it right and the Trip Advisor reviews seem to back this up. I'm glad to see that The Admiral Nelson is now thriving again, but I don't know when we'll be back that way again.