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Home , Bedworth, Coventry Canal, Coventry Colliery, Fradley Junction, Hawkesbury Junction, Oxford Canal

Hawkesbury Junction. (Sutton Stop) Near .

Starts at Hawkesbury Canal Junction,Blackhorse Road,

1 hours 49 minutes | 5.5miles 8.9km | Leisurely ID: 0.1798 | Developed by: Peter Hopewell | Checked by: Andy Page | www.ramblersroutes.org

A walk from the historic junction on the Coventry and . Taking in locks, towpaths, common land, footpaths, fields, paddocks and farms. Passing colourful canal boats, and a great old English pub with real ale and good nosh.

© Crown Copyright 2012 500 m Scale = 1 : 27K 2000 ft

Main Route Alternative Route Point of Interest Waypoint

The Ramblers is Britain’s walking charity. We work to safeguard the footpaths, countryside and other places where we all go walking. We encourage people to walk for their health and wellbeing. To become a member visit www.ramblers.org.uk Starts at Public Car Park at Hawkesbury Canal Junction (Sutton Stop) off Blackhorse Road, Bedworth, . Postcode CV6 6DF.

Getting there From Coventry take the A444 then B4113 (Longford Road) towards Bedworth From Bedworth Town Centre take B4113 (Longford Road)

Turn into Blackhorse Road, Traffic Lights by Blackhouse Pub. Go over Level Crossing and Turn Right into Ironbridge Way, at Roundabout Turn Right into Grange Road, over a Canal Bridge (with Traffic Lights and marked as "Weak Bridge") Turn instantly Left and again Left into Car Park. Buses available from Coventry,, and . http://www.stagecoachbus.com/timetable:

Route instructions [1] Leave from the back of the car park and turn right along the canal towpath, when you reach the canal junction do not cross the footbridge but bear to the right, then left, with the canal on the left and the Greyhound Inn on your right. In a few metres you will see Sutton Stop (A) on your left.

(A) Sutton Stop Lock is named after the Sutton family who provided the lock keepers for well over a century of the canal history. Close by is the Greyhound Inn, well known for real ale and good food.

The canal towpath can be muddy after rain, use extra care if walking with children.

Continue along the towpath under a number of bridges and over a towpath bridge (the entrance to Coventry Boat Club) until you arrive at bridge number 9. Go up the grass bank on your right and turn left over the bridge. Walk along a metalled track over Sowe Common(B), passing the club house to reach a road.

(B) Sowe Common. Public park with football pitches that can be hired, maintained by Coventry City Council.

The road can be busy so take care.

[2] Cross the road and turn left along Lenton’s Lane. Pass a bus shelter and a small row of houses, then take a sharp right up a way marked footpath immediately beyond the last house. Follow this to open fields. Follow the marked route over four fields. Half way along next field, where the hedge doglegs to the right, turn left through a large gap in the hedge along a grass track. (This point has a way mark showing the left turn but it can be overgrown.) Pass a green pond, then within a few metres go over a stile on your right, turn left and follow the field edge to the end of this field, go over another stile into a large field. Walk diagonally left across the field at about sixty degrees to find a stile half way along the left hand hedge. Go over the stile and turn sharp right along this field to a metal gate. (Mind the horses.) Pass through the gate to a track between fenced paddocks to a gate into Oak Tree Farm yard ( C ).

(C) Oak Tree farm. Well known for horse riding and stables, show jumping in the summer, also the Farmyard clock, not to be missed.

Horses may be loose in fields take extra care.

[3] Pass through the farmyard, (look back at the building to see the clock), continue down the drive to a road, turn left along the road for 100 metres, cross and take a way marked gate alongside the first of a row of houses on the right. Continue over well way marked fields to a foot bridge. Turn right and go round a stable to find a gate in the fence. Walk diagonally left to a gate leading onto a track, turn right along the track for 400 metres, look out on the left for a short path to the canal. Turn left and follow the canal, passing moored boats, until you arrive back at the canal junction.Note the engine house with its tall chimney of the right before the lock.

(D) Engine House or Pump House used to raise water into the canal from a stream flowing underneath. (More details below).

Go over the footbridge then turn right along the towpath back to the car park. Alternately drop into the Greyhound Inn for refreshments then return to the Car park via the road.

Again use care on all roads and towpaths.

Additional 'Point of Interest' information The was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1768, and although the long term aim was to link Coventry to the Grand Trunk Canal, (later called the ), the first priority was to reach the coalfields at Bedworth, so that could be shipped to Coventry. The first 10 miles (16 km) were completed in 1769, and coal traffic proved profitable. The was authorised in that year, and was built as a contour canal by , which made it rather inefficient for the transport of goods. Brindley died in 1772, and the line from Coventry to was completed by Samuel Simcock in 1778.

The junction between the canals was the source of great controversy. The Oxford Canal's Act of Parliament contained clauses which stipulated that both companies had the right to the tolls on the other's canal for certain traffic which passed between them. Thus the tolls for all coal traffic on the first 2 miles (3.2 km) of the Oxford Canal were to go to the Coventry company, while tolls which the Coventry Canal collected for the first 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of travel by all goods except coal which had passed through the junction were to be given to the Oxford company. The junction was originally to be located at Gosford Green, but Brindley changed his mind while the bill was in Parliament, and tried to get the junction moved to Bedworth. This would have deprived the Coventry Canal of tolls on all coal traffic using the Oxford Canal, and so a compromise was reached. Longford was chosen as the site for the junction, and the compensation clauses were added to ensure that the Coventry Canal received much the same revenue as it would have done, had the junction been at Gosford. It was a complicated solution, and required both canals to run parallel to one another for some distance.

The Oxford company sought ways to alter the solution. First they tried offering £1,500 to the Coventry Canal, in the hope that the compensation clauses would not be enacted. Then they tried to obtain a second Act of Parliament, which would remove the clauses, but this was defeated by opposition from the Coventry Canal and its supporters. Their next tactic was to plan a bypass, which would connect to the Canal system, and avoid the need for a junction altogether. This failed, and so they did nothing for two years, but in 1776 made another attempt to reach agreement. They agreed that they would accept the compensation payments if the Coventry Canal completed their line to Junction within five years. The Coventry company replied by suggesting that if the junction was opened immediately, and trade could only pass between the canals at the junction, they would build their line to Fradley as soon as possible. If they failed to reach Fradley in seven years, no compensation claims would be made until the link was made. The Oxford company then suggested that they should assist the Coventry company to build a canal to the collieries, but the offer was not welcomed.

Finally, the Coventry Canal took legal action. They obtained a mandamus writ from the Court of King's Bench, which compelled the Oxford company to open the junction. The junction was opened on 15 April 1777 at Longford. There was an error in the levels, and whereas a level junction controlled by a stop lock was anticipated, the Oxford Canal was about 7 inches (18 cm) higher, which resulted in it losing water to the Coventry Canal every time the lock was used. The canals ran parallel for 1 mile (1.6 km), costing the boatmen time and the carriers money. Sir Roger Newdigate described the whole thing as "a very troublesome contrivance".

The junction was moved to its present location in 1803. In commercial carrying times, the junction was a major rendezvous for working boats awaiting orders for their next cargo from the many pits in the area.

A stop lock on the Oxford Canal isolates the water levels of the two original canal companies, with the Oxford being a little higher. A disused engine house, built in 1821, stands on the western bank of the Coventry Canal. It originally housed a Newcomen steam engine, which was brought from Griff Colliery, where it had already worked for 100 years, and which was used to pump water from mines in the area to supply the canal. By 1913, the developing shafts of the had reached below the geographical reach of the pump engine. Named Lady Godiva, it was decommissioned in 1913 but left in place, and eventually moved to the Dartmouth Museum in the 1960s. This geographic resource meant that the colliery had an immediate outlet for its pumped-out water ingress.

From the junction, the Coventry Canal heads to the south-west and is level to Coventry Basin, a distance of 5.5 miles (8.9 km). To the north, it joins the at Marston Junction, 2.8 miles (4.5 km) away, and the pound is level until the top lock of the Atherstone flight of eleven locks is reached, 11.1 miles (17.9 km) from the junction. The character of the Oxford Canal between the junction and , where it joins the Grand , was completely changed in the 1830s, when the winding bends of Brindley's contour canal were replaced by straight cuts which required embankments, cuttings and aqueducts, but the scheme reduced the distance to Braunston from 36 miles (58 km) to 22 miles (35 km). The canal is level from the stop lock to Locks, 15.3 miles (24.6 km) away. There are three pairs of locks at Hillmorton, as each was duplicated when the canal was straightened, to cope with the volume of traffic.

Acknowledgements Developed by: Peter Hopewell Checked by: Andy Page Hawkesbury Canal Junction (Sutton Stop) Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Leave the car park and turn right along the towpath Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Hawkesbury Junction Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Coventry Boat Club Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell Bridge number 9 Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Sowe Common Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Lenton's Lane Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Turn right on way marked path Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell Hinckley Ramblers out over the fields Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Over the stiles Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Mind the horses Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Oak Tree Farmyard Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell And the clock Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Over the fields Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Up the track Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Footpath back to the canal Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell Pass lots of colourful moored boats Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Back to Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell

Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Photo taken by: Pete Hopewell