#291 The Navigation, Kilby Bridge, Leicestershire : 1986 to 2021

 Our first ever visit to The Navigation Inn was on the evening of Wednesday 23rd July 1986.

This was our summer vacation and my first time along the Leicester Section of the Grand Union Canal. I remember little about the pub then apart from the fact that it was a pleasant, traditional canalside boozer (the photo is taken from the bridge over the canal).

We didn't return for many years and, when we did, it was a disappointment on the evening of Wednesday 27th August 1998!

The disappointment wasn't that it had become an Ansell's pub; no, it was that it was closed! We'd travelled for 5¼ hours in an afternoon from Foxton only to find that the landlord had, seemingly, done a 'runner'!

Peering through the windows was like looking into the Mary Celeste - there were still empty glasses and crisp packets littering the tables, but no sign of life.

We managed to slake our thirst and assuage our hunger in the not so nearby town/village of Wigston. According to the locals it's just "5 minutes" away...but that was obviously in a fast car as it was a good 20 minute walk (not what you really want after a 5¼ hour afternoon boating session through a dozen wide, heavy locks)!

It was another five years before we were back in Kilby Bridge for a lunchtime stop on Wednesday 20th August 2003.

This time it was open as just The Navigation and a free house as well. I have no recollection that particular visit, but over the years the pub has changed very little. (This time it took us just under 5 hours from Foxton!)

 

Boating trips that take us to Kilby Bridge inevitably entail a visit to Leicester (and often Nottingham) which are places that are only accessible (for us) on two week holidays. Thus, there is usually a significant gap between visits.

 

It was another six years before we returned, this time on the evening of Monday 7th September 2009 having had a lunchtime session in Leicester whilst waiting for our third crew member to join us for the rest of the trip.

There appeared to have been little change to the exterior of the pub (apart from a 'token' shelter over the external seating).

 

It would seem that our routine has changed from a visit every five years to six - we were back again at lunchtime on Friday 28th August 2015.
 

Again, no discernible change.

 

Another six years on and we made our most recent visit at lunchtime on Tuesday 10th August 2021.

The exterior is again largely unchanged (ignoring the fading of signs that have been there for at least 18 years!) but the doors and windows have been painted grey and the hanging sign has been replaced.

 

We sat in the front bar which is a proper old school canal pub bar and had a very pleasant lunchtime pub experience as I reported here.
 

The Navigation is a little gem of a pub and do I hope that we will be visiting it in the years to come (at 5 - 6 year intervals!)

Boozin' and Cruisin' through the East Midlands (Part 3)

Day 5 - Wednesday 

We were now heading out of Leicester, down the River Soar towards Loughborough and, ultimately, Nottingham! We were heading for Life After Football country! 

First pitstop for lunch was the Hope & Anchor at Syston which is a truly canalside pub!

This pub has a greater significance, for me, than just by being a canalside boozer. As a child of about 10 years old (not sure when we went exactly) we had a family day out to visit the Hope & Anchor to see my Mum & Dad's friend Reg Snelling who was the landlord. Reg was a real character with the appearance and demeanour of Eric Morecambe and he allowed me to pour a pint (keg) and also to make my own shandy! (The pub was not open, so no laws were broken!) I also remember walking down to the bank of the canal, not realising that I'd be making several return journeys over the years.

Over the past 50 years it has lost almost all of it's character with the extensions and major alterations, but there's a little room behind where the bar is now that still has the low ceiling and, just for a moment, I could imagine that I was back in the old pub.

After a less than average lunch, we headed off for Loughborough as our night time stopover. This meant passing through Barrow-upon-Soar (which has some very good pubs) and Mountsorrel (below).

We managed to secure a mooring outside The Boat in Loughborough and we popped in for a pint!

We then set off for, what I hoped would be, pastures new. It turned out that we'd visited The Windmill on a previous occasion!

A bit of Bass 'porn' for those who like that sort of thing!

I don't remember exactly when we last visited there, but it is still a proper little boozer! So, after a lovely Italian meal at Caravelli (just across the road from the Windmill) we ended up in The Three Nuns for our final drinks of the evening.

Apparently the pub got it's name because of a spelling mistake/typo and they decided to keep it! It's another lovely little pub that had the best screens I've come across in any pub or elsewhere. They had been installed by the landlord and his son. The plastic was perfectly transparent, the wooden frames were painted to exactly match the bar and they were sized perfectly to allow for ease of access to your pint whilst also giving perfect sound for communication across the bar.
 

Day 6 - Thursday

 

We made an early getaway as it was a long way to the River Trent. We were still in Loughborough when we passed what had been (to me) one of the best pub experiences in the land. Sadly, a pub no more!

It was called The Albion and every time we visited it felt as cosy as if you were in someone's house, but it was decorated in a nautical/seaside style and I always felt as though I was by the coast in a 'smuggler's cove!
 

It was another pleasant sunny day as we travelled down the Soar Navigation towards Trent Lock where the River Soar meets the River Trent and the Erewash Canal. We mmored just on the Cranfleet Cut of the Trent and headed for the Trent Lock pub.

This is a pub that Life After Football (here) and I (#188) have both reported on in the past. As it was such a nice day, the pub garden was pretty full and there weren't enough bar staff to cope adequately. We sat inside and had a pleasant lunch and three pints...not being too affected by the shortages the pub was experiencing at the time. All too soon it was time to return to Peggy Ellen for the short afternoon trip into Nottingham.

 

Just after exiting Beeston Lock I kept a lookout for the Boat & Horses pub recommended by Life After Football. It was easy to see from the cut, but even if we'd wanted to stop (it was only 4:30pm) there were no available moorings. Less than 90 minutes later and we were moored at our regular mooring spot in Nottingham.

The first stop on our evening's entertainment was the VAT & Fiddle which is the taphouse for the Castle Rock brewery...and only a short walk from our mooring!

It was quite early in the evening and consequently it lacked clientele and atmosphere! There was a full range of Castle Rock ales available, all very good, but I feel that they could do a bit more to the pub to make it feel special...it is just a normal, unremarkable boozer at present. Then it was time to find somewhere to eat. 

 

In this day and age, Google Maps is your friend...except when left in the hands of a friend who isn't fazed by a 1 mile walk (mostly up hill!) to a Chinese restaurant which turned out to be very good (but I reckon there must have been just as good places closer by!)

 

Then it was the route march back (down hill now!) to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem.

We could hear the final throes of a pop concert in the castle grounds as we approached the pub, but the pub itself was very quiet. For the first time ever, I think, we easily got seats in the first bar as you enter and we had an entertaining last couple of pints in the company of one of the pub's regulars!

Six days into our journey and it was time to commence the journey back to Napton and Wigrams Turn Marina.

(To be continued)

#239 The Station Hotel, Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire : 1997 to 2017 RIP

This is a sad tale that begins in the days following the death of Princess Diana. We were in Nottingham on that fateful night and our journey back to Lapworth took us through Burton-upon-Trent where one of our crew was departing us on the train. So, naturally, we popped into The Station Hotel for a drink.

This was at lunchtime on Monday 1st September 1997 and I have no recollection of the inside whatsoever!

The next time we were passing was a good number of years later and this is the sight that presented itself to us.

This was on the evening of Good Friday 3rd April 2015 and The Station Hotel was no more.

And, just to confirm that it was permanently gone here is the most up-to-date picture I have.

This was on the evening of Sunday 16th April 2017 on our way to finally discovering the Cooper's Tavern after years of not really knowing where it was! The Station Hotel is definitely no more having been converted into flats. (According to the Closed Pubs website, "This pub was originally owned by Salts Brewery until they were taken over by Bass, it then swapped to Ind Coope in 1978. It was converted into flats in 2009"

#205 Sacks of Potatoes, Gosta Green, Birmingham : 1986 to 2015

The Sacks of Potatoes is a pub that will be familiar to any student (past & present) of Aston University as it sits in the middle of the campus. It is a pub I've visited on many occasions not involved with canal trips, but the only pictures I take are whilst on holiday (mainly!)

We start our journey at lunchtime on Thursday 31st July 1986.

We'd moored at Aston Junction and were nearing the end of a two week journey that had taken us to Nottingham. In those days the Sacks of Potatoes was a cosy, proper pub that did pub grub.

We didn't venture back there again until lunchtime on Wednesday 6th September 1995.

The reason for such a long delay was because our boat, Emma Jane, had spent two years up North, then another five years down South and this visit was towards the end of the journey bringing her back to the Midlands. In those few years, the Sacks of Potatoes has been extended quite a bit, much of it at the back. It wasn't quite as cosy as before, but it was still a proper pub!

It wasn't too long before our return at lunchtime on Wednesday 3rd September 1997, again mooring at Aston Junction and again returning from a trip that had taken us to Nottingham.

From this view you can see the considerable sideways extension of the pub compared to the 1986 view.

We were back again for another lunchtime stop on Sunday 29th August 1999, this time at the start of a trip that would take us along the Caldon Canal for the first time.

It had undergone a refurb in the intervening years and it was no longer labelled as an M&B pub, although it still was part of the Mitchell's & Butlers group. It was around this time that I completely lost track of who owned what pub and what beer you might expect to see! Sadly, the picture had disappeared from the side wall!

We were back again almost exactly a year later for lunch on Sunday 27th August 2000.

No real changes to report, the colour difference being caused by bright August Bank Holiday sun in 1999 versus Bank Holiday gloom in 2000!

It was quite a few years before we came back to the Sacks; almost exactly ten years had elapsed, it was another lunch stop on Saturday 28th August 2010.

Externally it had been repainted and there were many more seats (three years since the smoking ban), but other than that the pub was largely unchanged. In fact, most of the significant changes were going on around the pub as Aston University underwent a massive transformation.

The next picture is from Friday 6th June 2014, not related to a canal trip.

I was out by the university taking pictures, so, as we hadn't been there for a few years, I thought I'd get a new picture for the blog. Little had changed, but the hanging baskets now contained real flowers!

Ironically, we were back the next year for a lunchtime stop on Sunday 14th June 2015.

The Sacks of Potatoes wasn't our original destination for this lunch stop, but The Bull (#073) was closed on Sundays, so here we were again!

Despite the changes all around and the expansion of the pub in the nineties it still feels like a proper pub which is something of a rarity in this day and age! It is now part of the Stonegate Group of pubs (not sure when it transferred from Mitchell's & Butlers!) and the website is here.

 

#199 The Steamboat Inn, Trent Lock, Long Eaton, Notts : 1986 to 2015

On the occasions that we go to Nottingham on our boating trips we almost always stop at Trent Lock which means that we have two pubs to choose from - the Trent Lock (Formerly the Trent Navigation Inn) which I featured in July (#188) and The Steamboat Inn. (Well, I say 'choose', but we generally go into both!)

Our first visit to The Steamboat Inn was on the evening of Friday 25th July 1986 on our way to Nottingham.

It was a pleasant summer's evening and the pub was very busy. The only other thing I remember is that we won quite a few quid on the Quiz Machine (£10 Jackpot in those days!). The machine did its best to thwart us with the last two (supposedly random) questions being on railway steam engines. Fortunately, our crew member Matt was something of a railway buff and knew both answers!

We didn't return to Trent Lock until Saturday 30th August 1997 for a lunchtime stop.

As you'd expect, the outside had been redecorated in the intervening 11 years.

The next time we popped into The Steamboat Inn was at lunchtime on Thursday 3rd September 2009 on our way up the Erewash Canal for the first time.

Another complete external refurbishment, this time after a 12 year gap.

Our most recent visit was on Sunday 23rd August 2015 at lunchtime.

Just a repainting job on the outside over the previous six years looks to be the extent of the change, the lettering appears to be the same, albeit with a missing 'T'!

At first glance I'm surprised that two pubs, in what is an out-of-the-way place (by road), have survived through to the current day. But, on further reflection, both The Steamboat and the Trent Lock are very different in character - the Trent Lock always being like a proper 'country pub' with the Steamboat being a bit more 'brash' and having the feel of a seaside pub. When the sun is out, both do a roaring trade and I hope that they both make enough on the good days to survive through the bad ones.

One final observation: in the first picture there is a large tree behind the right hand chimney of the pub. Eleven years later it looks to still be there, but leafless, even thogh it is August. In 2009 the tree has gone. I'm assuming that these pictures have captured the death of an Elm tree caused by Dutch Elm Disease.

#194 The Crown Inn, Alrewas, Staffordshire : 1997 to 2015

Alrewas is a lovely village on the Trent & Mersey Canal that we've only visited infrequently because of its position relative to our canal cruising round trips. There are at least three pubs in the village (at time of writing!) so it is always a welcome stop when we are passing through.

The first time we visited The Crown Inn was on the evening of Monday 1st September 1997 on our way back from Nottingham.

I don't remember much about the interior other than it being a comfortable village pub that served food.

We returned to Alrewas on the evening of Saturday 23rd August 2003.

This coincided with the Wychnor Boat Rally that is held each August Bank Holiday so the pubs in the village were packed. We couldn't get any food so we decamped to Lichfield for the rest of the evening.

Our next foray into Alrewas was at lunchtime on Monday 31st August 2009, this time heading towards Nottingham.

Again, there is little discernible change to the exterior, the only minor changes being the removal of the parasols and the disappearance of the crown sign that had appeared in 2003.

Our most recent visit to Alrewas was at lunchtime on Good Friday 3rd April 2015.

Now that's what I call a transformation! Twelve years and virtually no changes...and then this! Inside it is now done out in the modern pub and dining style, but fortunately it hasn't gone all the way to being a restaurant. To see pictures, The Crown website is here.

#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!

#188 Trent Lock Inn, Long Eaton, Derbyshire : 1986 to 2015

Trent Lock is where the River Trent meets the River Soar and the Erewash Canal and is where the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire meet with the Soar forming the border between Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, and the Trent that of Derbyshire.

From a boater's point of view it is quite a scary junction, especially when the local sailing club is out in force. Our first visit was on the lunchtime of Sunday 27th July 1986 on the return from Nottingham.

Back in those days it was called the Trent Navigation Inn. This photo is taken from the beer garden which leads down to the jetty on the River Trent where we were moored. An attractive location.

We didn't return until the lunchtime of Sunday 31st August 1997. Again, returning from Nottingham.

Quite an external transformation had taken place in the intervening 11 years...but I still cannot remember what it was like inside!

We stopped again, this time with no trip to Nottingham, at lunchtime on Friday 22nd August 2003.

Another external makeover, but it still retained the name from previous visits.

The next stop was, again, at lunchtime on Wednesday 2nd September 2009. It was an unscheduled visit as we had planned our first trip up the Erewash Canal, but were stymied by a lack of water. Instead, and after lunch, we went to Nottingham first. When we returned the next day, the canal was clear for navigation.

Another six years had passed by and another refurbishment had occurred. It had now become more of a pub/restaurant hybrid with a rustic style interior.

Our most recent visit was yet another lunchtime stop on Sunday 23rd August 2015.

Six more years had passed and now the pub was part of M&B's Vintage Inns brand and had been renamed The Trent Lock!

So, over a period of 29 years this pub/restaurant has had four complete makeovers together with a name change, but yet the TV aerial is still the same! I'd also hazard a guess that the roof has also been untouched over that period.