Coventry Canal

In the morning I check the gearbox cable, seems to be working OK.  Start the engine, engage forward, no problem.  Reverse, working fine.  Phone call to Matty and he suggests the gearbox may have become overheated and I should check the oil.  It is low, so I top up and set off.

Forgot to take photos - I pinched this one - Fradley Junction where I turn onto the Coventry Canal and new territory.

The Coventry canal was authorised two years after the Trent and Mersey, in 1768, and should have run from Coventry, via Bedworth and Atherstone, to join the Grand Trunk Canal at Fradley. The first 10 miles to Bedworth were completed in 1769, and a lucrative trade in coal soon developed between the Bedworth collieries and Coventry. The canal was completed to Atherstone in 1771, but the next stage involved a flight of eleven locks, and the money had run out. Consequently, construction stopped at Atherstone, some 21.4 miles from Fradley.

No more progress was made until 1782, when the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was being proposed. The promoters wanted to ensure that it would be profitable if it was built, and this depended on it being part of a larger network, which would generated long-distance traffic. They therefore negotiated with the Oxford Canal, who agreed to complete their line to join the River Thames at Oxford, and hence open up the route to London. Negotiations with the Coventry Canal were a little more complex, and the final solution involved the Coventry Canal building 10.4 miles of canal, including the flight of eleven locks and two more at Galscote, to meet with the proposed canal at Fazely Junction. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and the Trent and Mersey Canal would then build half each of the final 11 miles to link Fazeley Junction to Fradley, following the line authorised by the Coventry Canal's Act. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was authorised in 1784, and work began. It was completed in 1789, and the network, including Fradley Junction, was operational by the following year.

One of the lovely gardens

5 miles; 4 locks

TOTAL:  775 miles (289 miles broad, 127 miles river, 44 miles tidal); 418 locks (199 broad); 78 moveable bridges