Tuesday 7 June 2016

A non-existent service point

This morning we had a good look round the "Church by the Locks" - St. John the Baptist, very close to Hillmorton Locks.

Having passed through the locks on innumerable occasions I never knew the church was there. It is well worth the look, though, as it has lots of interesting things inside. Such as what, you ask? Such as a fourteenth century tomb and wall panels giving details of how income from land etc. is to be used to help the poor.

We untied at 1230, winded and retraced our steps to Rugby. Here we paused long enough for me to nip to Tesco for some ice creams, two of which we handed over to Tony and Jenny as they passed by on Jenny B.

En route we passed a scene of activity. The pipes are blue, which usually denotes water, but they are huge. Is it for the new town of Houlton, being built on the aerial farm site, I wonder?

Our not-very-old Nicholson guide shows a combined services point (Elsan, water and rubbish) at the entrance to Brinklow Marina. We turned in, needing to empty a cassette, but couldn't see anything likely. As I was there, I went all the way to the end of the marina before winding easily - there's a lot of space between the two sets of pontoons - and pausing by a boat at the entrance where we could see a woman on board. We asked her, but she didn't know, apart from suggesting we stop on the diesel point and investigate a small low brick building. As we tied up she came past, having driven round on her way out, and said we should ask Eric, the harbourmaster. I did; Eric said we could use the Elsan (in a wooden shed) for a £2 donation to the air ambulance. Having got this far I couldn't really do anything else, so that's what I did. The marina is large, open (fun in the wind, I expect) and very quiet.

We continued on our journey, stopping at Ansty outside the Rose and Castle pub garden. There was a group of white geese; here's one of them.

After tea we went for a walk. The sky had clouded over and the air had cooled, feeling like it might rain. We had enjoyed unbroken hot sunshine until then, so it was a bit of a relief. We walked to Ansty Church (locked by now, of course) and returned via the Rose and Castle where I sampled the Ubu. Tasty. The food smelled good but was on the pricey side.

We have decided to check out the post office at Fazeley for getting our postal votes forwarded to; we should reach there after our votes do.

5 comments:

Adam said...

As far as I'm aware (and we moored there for a year) there have never been public facilities at Brinklow. And you're right, it's a nightmare in the wind (which seemed to be most of the time) -- but then that seems to be true of pretty much every marina.

Diane and Ray said...

Also there is a water point, elsan and rubbish at Brownsover opposite the Tesco moorings Diane Nb Ferndale

Halfie said...

Adam, a glitch in the Nicholson guide, then.

Diane, there's water at Brownsover, but neither Elsan nor rubbish. The public loos there have been boarded up for quite a while.

Diane and Ray said...

We used the elsan which is at the back of the building that is boarded up and there is a rubbish bin at the exit of the car park. But yes the toilets are not in use Diane

Halfie said...

Diane, wow! I didn't even look as it looked so obviously closed. And, yes, I remember the rubbish skip now, but it was overflowing and didn't look like a "boater's" skip. That's really useful to know, though. Thanks.