Braunston, on the Grand Union Canal, is the spiritual heart of the English canal network and has a rich history. It lies at the junction of the Oxford Canal and the Grand Union Canal and is always busy from a boating perspective. There are four pubs in the village, two of which are on the canal.
The Old Plough is in the main part of the village, a short stroll from the cut. The first time we ever visited the Old Plough was on the evening of Thursday 23rd September 1993.
In those days, our boat Emma Jane was moored at Winkwell near to Berkhamstead and our Summer/Autumn trips were restricted to seeing how far north we could get up the Grand Union in a week then turn around and return to base! Judging from the photo, I suspect that this was the last pub of the night. As I recall it was a pleasant, well furnished local pub that did food, but we didn't eat there that night as we'd probably already eaten.
We did return the next year and visited on the way back to our base on the evening of Saturday 3rd September 1994.
I'm fairly sure we did dine there this time. The external signs had been changed, but it was pretty much the same inside.
We didn't revisit the Old Plough for quite a few years when we were reproducing our trips of the 1990's by heading down the Grand Union as far as we could get, then turning around and heading back to our moorings which were now at Lapworth on the Stratford Canal.
This visit was on the evening of Sunday 26th August 2001 on a trip that would take us to Aylesbury for the first time. Unfortunately, for us, this was a Bank Holiday Sunday and the Old Plough was so busy that we were told that the food would take two hours! So we drank up and caught a taxi to Daventry where we had a very pleasant Thai meal.
We were back again two years later on Sunday 17th August 2003.
This time it wasn't the Bank Holiday weekend and there was only a short wait for the food which was very good. Since 1994 the pub had hardly changed with the same signage outside.
Another two years passed before we came back again; this time a Spring-time trip along the Grand Union to Weedon.
This was taken on Saturday 28th May 2005. Again the pub was unchanged.
Our final visit from the canal was on the evening of Sunday 24th May 2009.
Again we got there on a Bank Holiday Sunday and again we elected to go to Daventry to eat as the Old Plough was way too busy! Inside the pub was the same as ever, but the external signage had been changed, removing the Pubmaster branding.
This final picture was taken on Sunday 30th September 2012 as I was on my way to play golf near Northampton.
A complete facelift! One thing I do notice throughout the pubs that I've covered so far is the TV aerial. Here it appears to have been unchanged since 2001, although a satellite dish has appeared! I didn't venture inside as I was on a mission to take pictures of all the Braunston pubs before getting to the first tee!
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