Priors Hardwick

A packed lock pound at Napton

It was busy on the Napton flight.

We got up fairly early, for us, and left our Flecknoe mooring around 8:30. We weren’t the first to depart because around 7.00 whilst we were dozing we heard a boat go past heading towards Braunston and at least two more passed us before 8:00.

We had decided to get an early start because it was clear that this post-lockdown weekend was busy and the Napton flight, which can get busy at the best of times, had the potential to be very busy. After following a couple of boats heading west (one who turned north towards Warwick and one stopped at Napton Narrowboats) and got to the bottom lock at Napton around 9:30 and found it quiet. A solitary hire boat was on the water point below the Folly Inn. A couple of CRT volunteers were operating the locks and this looked like the start of a smooth journal up the nine locks to Marston Doles. How wrong I was. The CRT volunteers were quickly moving boats up the flight to the first pound where there was serious congestion. Three boats were “permanently” moored up there and they had been joined by five boats waiting to enter the second lock. The first pound was in fact full of boats and the extra assistance from the volunteers had simply served to make things worse.

WWII Pill box on the Napton flight

Looking towards Napton Hill

Eventually the message got through and the volunteers began to hold boats back. To put it simply, there was no point in going up through the lock unless another boat came down. The result of all this congestion was the first lock of the flight took us over an hour to negotiate. Boats came down in a steady stream but those going up did not. Still, the weather was glorious, and a deer was spotted alongside the third lock. The water buffalo were in their usual field about halfway up the flight but not near enough to the locks to make a good photo.

Marston Doles top lock

Eventually the message got through and the volunteers began to hold boats back. To put it simply, there was no point in going up through the lock unless another boat came down. The result of all this congestion was the first lock of the flight took us over an hour to negotiate. Boats came down in a steady stream but those going up did not. Still, the weather was glorious, and a deer was spotted alongside the third lock. The water buffalo were in their usual field about halfway up the flight but not near enough to the locks to make a good photo.

Boat in a field (no water) on the Oxford Summit

We didn’t travel much further and stopped at one of our favourite mooring spots on the Oxford Canal summit near Priors Hardwick. It’s marked by a WWII concrete pill box on the off-side. 

Mooring at Priors Hardwick

As I write this, sheep on the former ridge and furrow cultivation opposite Albert are furiously grazing as the sun goes down. A typical rural English scene.