Aqueducts on the south Stratford Canal, and overheating update

Instead of going all the way down to Stratford-upon-Avon by boat, we decided that we'd cruise down to Wilmcote, tie up by a winding hole, and walk into town from there. So we had just three and a half miles to go, and only one lock. But it did include two rather splendid aqueducts: Wootton Wawen and Edstone (or Brearley).


Wootton Wawen Aqueduct


Shadow on Edstone Aqueduct

Like Pontcysyllte, Edstone Aqueduct is a most impressive iron trunk with just the lip of the ironwork on one side, and the towpath with railing on the other. Unlike the Welsh aqueduct, though, Edstone's towpath is sunken to the level of the base of the iron trunk, meaning that there is no "extra" width of water under the towpath. The Ponty's towpath is cantilevered over the canal.


Edstone Aqueduct

On the return over Edstone a train passed underneath. I waved to the driver, and s/he responded in the hoped-for fashion with a friendly hoot.

Sitting by the river Avon in Stratford we ate our sandwiches, and then went for a cream tea at Bensons Tea Room. Back on board, we winded and cruised back upstream past Wootton Wawen to tie up at Preston Bagot, where we had tea on board. As a bonus, Ally came to join us in the evening. We all walked to the Crabmill Inn where the females had hot chocolate and I had a pint of UBU.

On the overheating front, it did it again this afternoon. I noticed that the temperature had risen to 90 (where it's usually just below 80), so stopped and topped up. While doing so I spotted water dripping from a plastic hose connector where it joined a copper pipe. When it was cool enough I started tightening the connector by hand, and then realised that it was almost off the copper pipe. I pushed it home and tightened it the best I could (does it need just hand tightening or should I use a stilson?). After some more running the joint was dry, so I hope that's the end of the overheating issues.

published prematurely in error