What's unusual about Atherstone Lock 5?

After breakfast we moved up four more locks to tie up below Lock 5, the most convenient mooring for Atherstone town centre. Jan had her hair cut at Scissor Sisters while I had coffee on board, then we did a bit of top-up shopping in Aldi. Back at the boat we had lunch and saw Chris and Di of Ultreya who had tied up behind us. Then we set off up the remaining five locks of the flight.

The entry to Lock 5 is under Watling Street.

Now, look at this photo. Nothing about the lock is obviously strange ... or is it? We are so used to perspective - where things closer to us seem bigger than things further away - that it doesn't seem odd that the nearer balance beam seems longer than the other one.

But it really is much longer than the further one. If I had taken a photo from the other side (why didn't I?) it might have looked very strange. The short balance beam is the length it is so as to accommodate the skew road bridge. Next time I'll try to remember to photograph it from the other side.

Here's a "towpath alpaca" at Harvey's.

We tied up for the night at Sutton Stop, having ascended the stop lock onto the Oxford Canal.