Canal Pub Crawling - Part 1

The idea for this blogpost comes courtesy of Life After Football and Pub Curmudgeon - Life After Football has been attempting to cycle to Alrewas from near to Burton-on-Trent (with mixed success!) and has been visiting pubs that we've passed on our canal journeys, but never visited (for various reasons; usually timing).

Pub Curmudgeon suggested that a purely canal based pub crawl must be feasible, so I decided that for our most recent canal trip, I'd take a picture of every canalside pub that we passed...whether we went in or not. I didn't realise it was going to be this long when I started!

Day 1

GRAND UNION CANAL - Wigrams Turn to Warwick (Kate Boats)

We set off at about 10am on Wednesday 5th June 2019. By 11:25am we'd reached The Boat Inn, Stockton CV23 8HQ, but it was too early to stop.

We have stopped here before, but it was many years ago.

Next was The Blue Lias, Stockton CV47 8LD. It was now 12:25, but having just negotiated the main part of the Stockton flight of locks, it still wasn't time to stop!

As with The Boat, we've stopped here before, but quite a while ago.

We finally decided to stop at a regualr haunt of ours along this section, the Two Boats, Long Itchington CV47 9QZ at 13:00.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with either of the two previous pubs, the Two Boats just wins out as our favoured stopping point.

The village of Long Itchington boasts a good number of pubs including the Cuttle Inn, Long Itchington CV47 9QZ which sits directly opposite the Two Boats on the Grand Union Canal.

It is a place we've occasionally visited, but the Two Boats always wins out.

We left the Two Boats at about 15:00 and planned to get to Warwick for the evening. This meant passing more canalside boozers, the first a classic estate pub that we've never been in; The Fusilier, Leamington Spa CV31 1NJ.

By now it was 18:00, but still too early to stop. On the far side of Leamington are two pubs, on opposite sides of the canal which have been built in the last 20 years. First is The Waterside Inn, Leamington Spa CV31 3JZ which was originally called The Tiller Pin. We've never stopped here.

It was now 18:23 and as we passed under the A452 bridge, it was still 18:23 when I took this picture of The Moorings at Myton, Leamington Spa CV31 3NY.

This is a pub we have visited, once, but not on this occasion. We pressed on to warwick where we moored up at 19:10, spending the evening in various pubs in the town.

Day 2

GRAND UNION CANAL - Warwick (Kate Boats) to Kingswood Junction

STRATFORD CANAL - Kingswood Junction to Lapworth (Lock 14)

We set off again at about 09:30 and were passing by a classic canalside boozer that we, sadly, haven't visited for many years, The Cape of Good Hope, Warwick CV34 5DP 

This view, from the second Cape Lock, was taken at 09:50, so way to early to stop. 

Our next challenge was the Hatton Flight of locks which we completed and moored above the flight by 13:55. This gave us plenty of time to sample the delights of what is now a gastropub and not quite as canalside as it advertises!

It is quite a walk up the hill to the Hatton Arms, Hatton CV35 7JJ (formerly The Waterman), but we persevered for some good food and drink. This is a place we've visited on many occasions because, irrespective of whether you are going up or down the flight, the next pub is three hours away (at least).

After our obligatory (and customary) two-hour pit-stop we were back on the water heading for Lapworth, but there was one more boozer gastropub that we would pass by (although we have visited in the past).

It was 17:15 as we sailed by Tom o' the Wood, Rowington CV35 7DH. It isn't exactly on the canal bank, but a lot closer than the Hatton Arms!

Once we'd moored (at about 18:30) we visited The Boot Inn, Lapworth B96 6JU which isn't quite canalside either, but near enough.

We had one pint in the (very successful) gastropub that is The Boot and moved on to try our luck at a proper canalside pub (although not one that we'd pass by on this trip).

The Navigation, Lapworth B94 6NA is a pub we've visited on many occasions. It still is a proper pub, albeit with a large restaurant area, but it was nowhere near as busy as The Boot had been.

 So, after just two days, we've passed twelve canalside pubs but only went into four of them.

Before I started this entry, I expected that there would be half this number of pubs, but I will continue the journey soon.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

UPDATE 4 : #008 The Navigation, Lapworth, Warwickshire : 1986 to 2017

Since our last visit in 2012 we've only had limited opportunities to return to The Navigation as we no longer have our moorings nearby.

We did visit on the evening of Wednesday 1st October 2014.

 I briefly reported on it here and it was a good night in a well refurbished old favourite.

We returned at lunchtime on Sunday 13th August 2017 and I'm pleased to be able to report that it is still as good as ever.

The exterior has been repainted and it is no longer The Navigation "at Lapworth", presumably because it is actually in Rowington. The greenery looks as though it is about to take over, but I'm pleased to report that the streetlight is still unchanged!

Inside, the new owners have maintained the 'pubby' feel in the bar by making it lighter, but also by keeping the uneven floor with the general layout and seating staying the same. The food and service were both excellent and the atmosphere was enlivened by landlord Mark collecting winning bets from his regulars on his beloved Huddersfield Town's first win in the Premier League. (The 'teletext' verion of the top half of the table was the only thing allowed on the telly...presumably until Man United knocked them off the top a few hours later!)

The beer was also up to a high standard, I sampled the Lapworth Gold which was excellent.

I blame Retired Martin for corrupting me as I'm now tryling much more of the real ales on offer than ever before...but I still drink Carling most of the time! The Lapworth Gold is brewed by Byatt's, a small brewery near Coventry (and a new name for me!)

And finally...a man walked into the bar with his son and asked for a half pint of the hand pulled Guinness as he'd heard so much about it and just happened to be driving by. Yes, the only hand pulled Guinness in the UK is alive and well at The Navigation. The verdict? Very good he told me just before getting back into his open top E-type and disappearing into a lovely Warwickshire Sunday afternoon.

#059 Tom o' the Wood, Rowington, Warks : 1986 to 2011

When I first visited the Tom o' the Wood it was a great country pub in a perfect location just by the Grand Union Canal.

This shot was taken from the canal bridge in July 1986 before we started a canal trip that took us to Leicester.

The next visit was in 2000. In the intervening years our boat, Emma Jane, had been 'up north' on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and then 'down south' on the Grand Union. Although we moved the boat back to the Midlands in 1995, the Tom o' the Wood wasn't a regular stop, but we did visit at lunchtime on Saturday 27th May 2000.

The main sign on the side had changed and the ivy was starting to take over, but inside it was pretty much the same as before...apart from the extension/conservatory that had been added.

We were back again in 2001 at the start of our trip that took us to Aylesbury for the first (and so far only) time.

This was taken at lunchtime on Saturday 25th August 2001 and, apart from the extra growth of the ivy, it was still unchanged.

The next time we stopped at the Tom o' the Wood was on Friday 27th May 2005 on our way to Nuneaton where Emma Jane was going to get a new roof.

And what a disappointment it was! It was no longer a country pub that did good meals, it was an up market restaurant where you could get a pint! As I recall, it was lunchtime, but there were no sandwiches on the menu! On the outside, the ivy seemed to be taking over and the traditional pub sign had disappeared.

Over the next few years it went through several owners and,I think, was just called The Wood for a short while!

Our most recent visit was on Friday 4th November 2011 on what turned out to be our final ever trip on Emma Jane.

The Tom o' the Wood is under new ownership and it is their intention to turn it back into a country pub again, but on the evidence we saw it is still more of an eating place than a proper pub, but in rural Warwickshire, that's what will be successful. At least they've reinstalled the pub sign and trimmed the ivy!

Here is the above photo converted to a 'painting' which is my current project under the name Photo Digital Art.

Finally, where does the name come from? According to their website the name goes back to a 17th Century corn mill.