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Date: 13th May 2024
Canal: Oxford Canal and Grand Union Canal
Direction: North East
Locks: 0
Swing bridges: 0
Braunston village
The cruise:
Today marked the end of our journey back to Braunston. We travelled north-east, reluctantly leaving our tranquil mooring in Flecknoe, and turned east at Braunston Turnover Bridge, onto the Grand Union Canal.
Our first stop was Midland Chandlers, where John planned to buy bilge paint and a few other odds and ends. It’s always fun to browse the shelves and think about what our next boat project will be.
With our boat shopping completed, we continued our journey towards Braunston. We needed to fill up our water tank, but when we arrived at the water point there were already two boats on it. We pressed on to the next water point, only to find the water pressure was disappointingly low. But there was no hurry, after all this is ‘boat time’ and everything just moves at a slower pace.
While John took care of refilling our water tanks, Boasley and I took a pleasant stroll around Braunston Marina.
With our water tanks topped up we moved on and found the perfect mooring just a short distance from Braunston village.
Braunston Marina
Braunston:
Braunston is a very small village in Northamptonshire and is considered, by some, to be the heart of the English waterways. The Oxford and Grand Union canals meet at Braunston Turnover Bridge and the spire of All Saints’ Church (also known as the Cathedral of the Canals) is a very distinctive landmark for boaters.
If you walk up the hill, from the canal, you’ll find that the village has a wonderful butcher’s shop, a substantial convenience store and a bustling café.
The Boat House pub is situated on the towpath, and you can moor directly outside or a short walk away. The Old Plough and The Wheatsheaf pubs are in the village itself; small, friendly and providing excellent food/drink it is well worth making the effort to visit them.
Braunston Marina is a real pleasure to walk around, with a boat builder, a dry dock, a traditional rope/fender maker, a boat cover/canopy maker and moorings.
The best way to describe the canal at Braunston is bustling. As boaters we can find everything we need here, but it can be extremely busy at times.
The spire of All Saints’ Church
Boat notes:
We’ve had a bit of a mystery on our hands lately with our water pump. It makes an intermittent noise, which is normal because it needs to pressurise every now and then. However, we began to be a little concerned when we noticed that each evening, instead of the usual short blast, the water pump seemed to run for a longer period of time. We couldn’t quite figure out why this was happening, and it had us scratching our heads.
But we have now worked out that it is the water filter under our sink, which is automatically flushing itself every evening. Mystery solved and this crisis (which we now know was never really a crisis) has been averted.
Links:
We are John, Lorraine, and Boasley the Boat Dog.
Follow our adventures as we learn to live the life of contiuous cruisers on the British waterways.
