Day Twenty-Four - Blisworth to Cosgrove

We woke to a bleak and cool day. We weren’t sure where we were going to moor at the end of the day but we were keen to see Stoke Bruerne (pronounced Brew-in) which has a canal museum. We set out at eight-thirty and after going through the three kilometre Blisworth Tunnel we arrived at Stoke Bruerne forty-five minutes later. We were a bit early for the ten o’clock opening of the museum which gave us an opportunity to look around the village. The village had a pleasant feel about it and had quite a few thatched houses. There were no shops or village centre. We later discovered at the canal museum that the Grand Union Junction Canal which was opened in 1805 cut the village in half through its main street.
The village of Stoke Bruene is over 1000 years old and is also mentioned in the Domes Day Book. It is very popular with day trippers keen to see the museum and eat at the pubs and tea rooms.
After having a scrumptious coffee and walnut cake and coffee at the Canal Museum tea room we spent some time in the three-storey museum. This is housed in an old steam powered corn mill. Of particular interest was the explanation of how the canals were built in the 1700’s and the involvement of women on the canals as a part of the war effort during World War II.
We left Stoke Bruene and immediately faced the seven Stoke Locks. Thankfully we were joined by another boat and this helped us get through the double locks. It was particularly difficult for Henk and the other boat as the wind was very strong and the boats were often pushed sideways. The weather was living up to the BBC prediction of “blustery and unstable”. It took us two hours to get through the seven locks.
We found a protected area on the canal and moored and had a late lunch and a break at three o’clock. We then motored for a further hour before arriving at Cosgrove. This is a little village which has an unusual pedestrian tunnel originally used by boat horses which passes beneath the canal to link the two parts of the village. We used this to get to the “Barley Mow” pub for a meal.
We had a very tasty meal and when we came out we heard the wonderful sound of bell-ringing practice at the local Cosgrove church. It was lovely to walk back to our boat with the bells ringing across the village.
We only had a light sprinkle of rain a couple of times during the day so we were lucky. Tomorrow is not looking good but Wednesday’s forecast seems better.
Photos: Coming out of Blissworth Tunnel; Henk holding the boat at Stoke Bruerne outside the museum; A fox and a pig on top of a thatched roof at Stoke Bruerne; Henk at the pedestrian tunnel which goes under the canal at Cosgrove.