#270 The Wheatsheaf, Weedon, Northants : 1991 to 2019

I'm fairly sure that we'd visited The Wheatsheaf on previous trips, but this is the first pictorial record that I have.

This was on the evening of Thursday 24th September 1992 as we made our way north on the Grand Union Canal. Back then, as it is now, The Wheatsheaf is a standard little boozer which is now becoming an endangered species.

Although we did stop in Weedon the next year it wasn't until lunchtime on Wednesday 31st August 1994 that we revisited the pub.

No apparent change, but some maintenance work being applied to the front door.

We were back again the next year on our last trip from Winkwell.

This was on the evening of Wednesday 30th August 1995 and the pub was still largely unchanged.

Our next stopover in Weedon was on the evening of Monday 27th August 2001 as we headed south on a trip to Aylesbury.

Still no change to the pub, but the Weedon Takeaway (next door) has transformed to Riverside.

Our next visit to Weedon was as part of a short trip to take our boat Emma Jane to Nuneaton for roof repairs/replacement.

This was on the evening of Sunday 29th May 2005 and the pub was again as before...but next door it was now the Lucky House!

So, in 13 years of visits, The Wheatsheaf barely changed one bit...how would it be when we finally returned another fourteen years later, on the evening of Friday 19th April 2019?

Externally, a complete makeover, but we didn't actually venture inside as we were headed elsewhere for some food. (The mobility scooter is a bit of a giveaway regarding the inside, though!) The Lucky House, however needs a bit of tlc!

We didn't have long to wait to sample the delights of The Wheatsheaf as we returned on the evening of Friday 9th August 2019 and this time we did go inside!

I can confirm that it is still a basic boozer with a few regulars in when we were there. We were also treated to an impromptu music session as the gaffer's daughter and a couple of her friends performed a number of popular classics for us. Of the chanteuses, two were what you could categorise as enthusiastic, whereas the third was good enough to be a professional!

Canal Pub Crawling - Part 3

We pick up our journey having spent an evening in Curdworth at The Beehive and White Horse, neither of which are canalside pubs.

DAY 5

BIRMINGHAM & FAZELEY CANAL - Curdworth to Fazeley Junction

COVENTRY CANAL - Fazeley Junction to Atherstone (above lock 6)

Again, we set out at about 09:30 with the aim of descending Curdworth Locks and having a lunchtime stop at Fazeley.

The first pub we passed was the Dog & Doublet, Bodymoor Heath B76 9JD at 11:30, but it was too early to think about stopping. We have visited there in the past and it is a great little pub.

Also, there were still a few more locks to be negotiated and we finally moored up at Fazeley Junction at 13:10. The pub we selected for our first pint wasn't, technically on our route (we were turning right at the junction and this pub is 100 yards to the left!) but we still went to the Three Tuns Inn, Fazeley B78 3QS.

This view from the A5 doesn't give the impression of a canalside boozer, but the garden at the back leads all the way down to the canal. It is under relatively new management and they don't do food anymore, but it is still a proper boozer. So, we had a pint and moved on to the Fazeley Victory (for Lunch) and the Three Horseshoes (still a great little pub).

So, it was back to the canal and onwards onto the Coventry Canal. It wasn't long before we were passing another watering hole.

The Gate Inn, Amington B77 3BY was the next canalside boozer we passed by at 16:25. Although the picture doesn't show it, the garden was very busy on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon. This is a pub we've stopped at previously, but not very often as it is only 90 minutes away from Fazeley, our preferred stopping place.

We continued our journey, passing another place we've never stopped at (16:55).

The Samuel Barlow, Alvecote B78 1AS is part of Alvecote Marina and is a relatively new addition to the canalside hostelries club having been built in 2003.

Again, it was way too early to stop as we pushed on to Atherstone. We passed through Polesworth which has several pubs, but none of them are overtly canalside. Having been caught in a late deluge, we moored up halfway up the Atherstone flight of locks just after 20:00. As we headed into town I took this picture of another pub we weren't going into today!

The King's Head, Atherstone CV9 2PA is another pub that we've occasionally visited, but when there are so many other pubs to choose from in the town, it tends to lose out! Today was no different and we walked into Atherstone for several pints and a curry.

DAY 6

COVENTRY CANAL - Atherstone (above Lock 6) to Hawkesbury Junction

OXFORD CANAL - Hawkesbury Junction to Newbold-on-Avon

We started off in drizzle and rain which didn't really abate much until our lunchtime stop, but we did pass another pub that we've visited in the past.

It was 11:05 and as tepmting a proposition as it was, it was still too early to stop at The Anchor Inn, Hartshill CV10 0RT. It looks as though it has been refurbished since our last visit, but being about 90 minutes 'sailing' time away from Atherstone it is generally a place we pass by.

After another couple of hours, passing through Nuneaton (no canalside boozers!) and close to Bedworth (and the now defunct Navigation which is a rather large private residence [that is up for sale]) we arrived at Hawkesbury Junction and a pub that it would be a crime to pass by.

The Greyhound Inn, Longford CV6 6DF is a proper 'old school' canalside pub that also does great food. There have been times when it has been so full that we've caught a taxi into Coventry! Being a cool, grey Monday, I was half expecting it to be closed, but it wasn't and we had our obligatory three lunchtime pints and some lovely food.

Now we were on the homeward stretch of the journey as we joined the Oxford Canal by passing through Sutton Stop Lock. The rest of the afternoon was grey and drizzly and we passed no canalside pubs before our evening stop. The Elephant & Castle closed many years ago (and we'd never visited it as it was only 20 minutes away from The Greyhound!) and I'm not counting the Rose & Castle in Ansty. Althoiugh the garden runs down to the canal, there's nowhere to moor and access is always via the road!

So, the next pub we came to was the Barley Mow, Newbold-on-Avon CV21 1HW, by which time it was 19:50.

Back in the day, this used to be two pubs actually next-door to each other! Now they've been combined to provide a pub and hotel. There were plenty of locals in the bar and there is a restaurant section, but we preferred to eat in the bar where there was some atmosphere...it was a fairly quiet Monday night!.

DAY 7
OXFORD CANAL - Newbold-on-Avon to Braunston Turn
GRAND UNION/OXFORD CANAL - Braunston Turn to Wigram's Turn Marina

This was the final leg of our journey and, as we both had to dash off to prior engagements as soon as we got back to base...we didn't stop for lunch!

After Newbold you get to Rugby quite quickly and we passed by a pub that we used a few times when it was first built, but it is now a Harvester which seems to have turned its back on the canal.

It was only 09:45 when we passed the Bell & Barge, Rugby CV21 1RG, so we wouldn't have stopped anyway, but you can see how the mooring has become so overgrown.

The next, and final pub we passed was something of a surprise.

It was 11:45 when we passed The Waterside, Hillmorton CV21 4PW and, on another day, we may well have stopped for an early lunch...but not today! However, that wasn't the surprise. The penultimate time we'd passed this way, we did stop at the Old Royal Oak which had been the name of this pub since my first visit on my first canal trip in 1980. Indeed, it was still the Old Royal Oak in September 2018 when we last passed this way, but (from what I can glean from TripAdvisor) it changed from a Hungry Horse into a Pub & Carvery in October/November 2018.

We pushed on, past Braunston (not passing any more canalside pubs) and on to Wigram's Turn.

So, on this leg of the trip we passed 10 canalside pubs and went into just three, which is the best percentage of the whole trip.

In conclusion, in seven days we passed 34 canalside pubs and actually went into just 8 of them. Of those 34 pubs, we have never been in 5 of them! (The trip was 104 miles, passing through 120 locks and took 50 hours 5 minutes)

Had we stopped at every pub, we would never have completed the journey in 7 days, but if time was not part of the equation, you could probably do it in about a fortnight without any stress.

What has really surprised me is that, before we did this, I'd have estimated that we stop at about 50% of the canalside pubs, whereas the reality is 23.5%. (Although, over the years, we have been in 85% of them).

#193 Boot Inn, Nuneaton, Warwickshire : 1995 to 2015 (RIP)

It is quite likely that we visited the Boot Inn in 1980 and again in 1982, but that was before I started taking a photo of every pub we visited on our canal trips.

Our first recorded visit was at lunchtime on Monday 4th September 1995.

It was quite a large place, but a proper drinkers pub that did an extensive range of basic food at a ridiculously low price. I remember being taken aback at being charged a whole 65p for a freshly prepared Bacon Roll!

We stopped at Nuneaton on several more occasions without revisiting the Boot even though we did take our narrowboat Emma Jane to Boot Wharf for a roof replacement in 2005!

Our next attempted venture into the pub was at lunchtime on Tuesday 26th May 2009, but it was closed over lunch!

Not surprisingly it had been externally refurbished over the passing fourteen years, but its demise was quite obvious from the signs asking for people to run the pub for £1,000!

When we returned at lunchtime on Wednesday 2nd September 2015 its demise was complete.

I'm not quite sure how many properties it has been converted into, but one thing is for certain - the Boot Inn is no more and never will be!

#192 New Inn, Long Buckby, Northamptonshire : 1986 to 2015

One of the things that I've noticed about pubs in this country is that, nine times out of ten, those that have a prime location on the inland waterways have appalling customer service and generally don't care because they don't have to. I'd like to say that the New Inn is an exception that proves the rule...but I can't!

The first time I visited the New Inn was on my very first canal trip back in 1980. In those days I wasn't taking pictures of the pubs we visited, but our logs record that we visited twice on that trip - Monday 16th April and Tuesday 24th April. They were both evening stops and I recall having a fantastic time playing skittles each time! We also stopped there on Friday 27th August 1982 and Thursday 30th August 1984 (Lunch) before the first time I took a picture on Monday 21st July 1986.

This was a lunchtime visit on a trip that would take us to Leicester and Nottingham.

In the early years Emma Jane was moored at Woodford on the River Nene, then Earlswood/Lapworth on the Stratford Canal which explains the frequent visits. Then Emma Jane was moved to Adlington on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and then down south to Cowley Peachey/Winkwell on the Grand Union Canal which is where we pick up the story again!

For a few years our 'summer' holiday consisted of heading north on the Grand Union for a week, see how far we got then turn round for the journey back. So, our next visit to the New Inn was at lunchtime on Friday 25th September 1992.

We were also there at lunchtime the very next day! This had been an eventful trip with a fire in the 'engine room' and a 24 hour delay because the canal was flooded near Grafton Regis! In the intervening six years the pub had acquired a hanging sign and the main sign had been replaced.

We were back the next year again...twice!

First on Thursday 23rd September 1993 in the evening.

Then again on the way back at lunchtime on Sunday 26th September 1993.

We were back on Sunday 4th September 1994 on our journey back for a lunch stop.

We'd missed out on the way up because of bad timing on the locks which closed at 4pm.

In 1995 we moved Emma Jane back to Lapworth and so our visit to the New Inn should have been the last for a few years. This visit was the first example of the intransigence of the people who ran the pub. It had been a slow morning coming up through the Buckby Locks and I'd gone ahead to see whether we'd be able to get something to eat if we were running a bit late. I was assured that we could get food.

We moored up at 14:05 on Thursday 31st August 1995 and dashed into the pub only to be told that food had stopped at 2pm! This was from the same woman who'd assured me it would be OK!

We returned on the evening of Monday 25th August 1997 on our way to Leicester and Nottingham again!

No problems this time and the hanging sign had returned.

In 2001, we took a trip down the Grand Union to cover some of the ground we'd become used to in the early 1990's. So, we had two (both lunchtime) stops at the New Inn. First on Monday 27th August 2001.

...and then again on Wednesday 5th September 2001.

Although the outside of the pub has seemingly not changed over the years, inside it had slowly transformed from a proper basic country pub into a more food based establishment. It was starting to look as though the skittle table would disappear, but, fortunately, that hasn't transpired.

Our next visit to the New Inn was on a springtime trip taking Emma Jane to Nuneaton for roof repairs.

 This was at lunchtime on Monday 30th May 2005. The main wall sign had finally changed after at least 15 years!

In 2009 anothr trip to Nottingham and Leicester (and the Erewash Canal) saw us stopping at the New Inn at lunchtime on Thursday 10th September 2009.

Our most recent stop was on the evening of Sunday 30th August 2015.

Again we were running a bit late as we'd had a 50 minute delay at Watford Locks. So, I'd phoned ahead to establish that the food stopped at 8pm. We moored up at 19:50 and got into the pub at 2 minutes past eight. The manager flatly said that the kitchen was closed and there was no food. A completely different manager, but he was channelling the same 'New Inn' attitude from twenty years previously.

Our evening was saved by the young woman I'd spoken to on the phone. She overheard the manager, had a word with the chef and offered us a choice of salad or sandwiches (no hot food) which was perfect!

The exterior signage had changed again, subtly whereas inside, little had changed over the past few years.

Just to demonstrate the "New Inn Attitude" I was very amused/disturbed by the replies of Michelle R to negative reviews on Tripadvisor which I discovered in my researches!

#184 The Admiral Codrington, Coventry : 2004 to 2015 (RIP)

My first ever canal trip was in 1980 and we went to Coventry where we moored up in the then quite derelict Canal Basin.

 This was from Thursday 19th April 1980, but we didn't visit The Admiral Codrington on that occasion.

We didn't venture back to Coventry Basin until Tuesday 30th May 2000 to find that a complete transformation of the basin had taken place.

Again, we didn't visit the Admiral Codrington which stood by one of the entrances to the canal basin.

We returned, again, on the evening of Friday 27th August 2004 and, this time, we did pop into The Admiral Codrington for a pint before we ventured into Coventry itself.

It was a typical 'back street' boozer that was common then, but a type that has suffered badly over the subsequent years.

We returned less than a year later for a lunchtime stop on Wednesday 1st June 2005. We were back so soon because we were taking Emma Jane to Nuneaton for roof repairs/replacement and we had a few hours to kill.

Although it was only 10 months, the pub had been completely redecorated on the outside with most of the signage renewed/replaced (even though, at first glance, it looks unchanged!).

My next visit was not by boat, but a special trip to take pictures of Coventry for my, then fledgling, Photo Digital Art project on the afternoon of Sunday 6th May 2012.

This is the sad sight that presented itself!

While in the canal basin I did manage to get a picture that most closely reproduces the shot of Emma Jane from 1980.

Our most recent boating visit to Coventry was on the evening of Tuesday 1st September 2015.

The final demise of The Admiral Codrington; transformation into the rather unimaginatively named, Canal View Court.

Meanwhile, the canal basin looked like this.

Quite a transformation in 35 years from a derelict, windswept canal terminus where we were the only boat to this seemingly thriving canal basin where there was only one mooring spot left. One final thing to note is that after 35 years, the block of flats that stand over the basin has finally got a refurb!

#067 Fosters Yard Hotel, Polesworth, Warks : 1998 to 2011

Polesworth is a large village on the Coventry Canal in North Warwickshire. Until 1998 it was a place we'd rarely stopped at on our canal trips. The first time we visited the Fosters Yard was on the evening of Monday 22nd June 1998.

To me it is very reminiscent, from the outside, of a typical Australian pub with the verandah, but there the similarity ends. Inside it was a fairly basic village local, but with an Indian Restaurant round the back as part of the hotel. This is the main reason for most of our subsequent visits as it was the only viable place in Polesworth to eat later on in the evening.

Our next visit was on the evening of Wednesday 31st May 2000

This photo is from the other side of the pub. Over the years we have stopped in Polesworth several times and have usually ended the evening in Fosters Yard, chiefly to eat in the Indian restaurant.

Monday 30th August 2004 on our way back from Oxford.

Saturday 20th August 2005, on our way to Chester having picked up Emma Jane from a boatyard in Nuneaton.

Sunday 27th May 2007 - finally a photo in daylight!

Wednesday 1st June 2011 and an extremely rare lunchtime visit to Fosters Yard! We ended up here because the other pubs in the village weren't serving food at lunchtime. 

Over the years, Fosters Yard has hardly changed at all apart from some minor signage alterations. This may be in some part because it is a Grade II listed building, which is about the only useful information that I gleaned from their website.

#022 Anchor Inn, Hartshill, Warwickshire : 2000 to 2011

The first time I visited this pub was back in August 1982 on only my third canal trip, but to be honest I can't remember too much about it other than it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere between Atherstone and Nuneaton on the Coventry Canal, but it was a decent stop off for the night.

The next time we stopped there was in 2000.

This photo was taken on Wednesday 31st May 2000 during a lunchtime stop. It is difficult to get a good shot of the pub as it is right by the bridge over the canal and, over the years, the road has been built up to smooth out the humpback bridge leaving the pub a bit obscured.

Our next stop was again a lunchtime visit on Monday 30th August 2004.

Very little appears to have changed. I'm not sure why we haven't stopped at the Anchor more often, but I suspect that it is the fear that it may have closed and we'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere without food and, more importantly, drink!

We did visit there again and this time it was an evening stop on Tuesday 31st May 2011.

The exterior has obviously been redecorated and new signage added. They have also taken the trouble to clear out the vegetation making it a more attractive prospect for passers by. The pub has a large garden at the back and inside it is quite cosy, feeling like a proper canalside pub. The food was 'interesting' and it serves Everards beer.

On the night we were there I didn't have a completely wonderful experience, but some of it was my fault! Firstly the food - I ordered Fish & Chips with Mushy Peas. Except they weren't Mushy Peas, they were Puréed Peas! What's the difference I hear you ask? Mushy Peas are made with Marrowfat Peas that are, essentially overcooked until they go mushy. Often they come out of a tin and have a synthetic green colour. I like Mushy Peas. What I got instead were garden peas that had been through a blender with cream! Not nice...and NOT mushy peas!

The faux pas I made with the drink was largely my fault, though. At the other side of the bar I saw someone get a pint of bitter that was straw coloured similar to lager, so I asked the barmaid what it was. "Sunchaser" came the reply. The barmaid then pointed to a hand pump on my side of the bar and I obviously missed most of what she said, but I did hear "special offer" and assumed that was the same beer. So I asked for a pint of that...and got a standard looking bitter...which wasn't what I wanted! I tried to discuss it with the barmaid, but she'd served what I'd ordered and it really was my mistake (getting deaf in my old age!) so I paid for it and drank it. It was only £2.00 and tasted OK, so not really the end of the world! Next pint I did get the Sunchaser which was much better! In the end we had a pleasant evening and it was a very short walk 'home'!