Sutton Stop/Hawkesbury Junction

It was only four weeks ago, but it seems longer ago than that. We approached the stop lock at Sutton Stop from the Rugby direction as the light started to fade. Look at the lockside ladder: now what is the point of that? The fall is a few inches - I doubt if a single tread is ever exposed. I suppose if someone fell in it might make it slightly easier to get out, but there are plenty of wharfsides with a similar drop and depth of water.


Here's Jan steering into it, anyway. We tied up having done the 180º turn onto the Coventry Canal. I took a couple more photos the next morning.


The photo below shows the turn: on the right is the Oxford Canal; on the left is the Coventry Canal towards Fazeley. I took the picture before seeing a postcard somewhere with a similar view of the engine house framed by the cast iron towpath bridge. I can't remember whether it had the overhead cable edited out. No such trickery here!