England, Scotland and Wales have over 2000 miles of
historic waterways. This is Hatton Locks.
Hatton Locks is located about 20 minutes from Coventry.
In the distance you can see the tower of St Mary's Church, Warwick.
Did I mention there are 21 locks :).
Read on if you would like to see a canal boat
negotiated just one of these fabulous locks to progress down the canal.
So here comes a canal boat.
Procedure seems to be that the men stay in the boat
at the helm whilst the ladies jump out.....
...and do a number of strenuous tasks which result in changing water levels in the
lock and followed by opening and closing those big gates. (I'm joking - everyone
takes it in turns. It looks hard work.)
Job done. Time to move on to the next lock.
There are walks along side the Canal. A sweet cafe too.
Up on the hill is a pub and a short distance away is
Hatton Country World and Shopping Village.
17 comments:
What a great spot for a visit. It's fun that you can turn the barriers open.
negotiating locks is slow work sometimes. I've passed boats in locks and they rarely seems to catch me up later.
Nice post, LOL. One of these days I am going to ride the canals on a long boat. I just got back from Russia on a river cruise, navigating multiple locks. I just sat and watched (and took pictures).
I saw this process many years ago on a trip to London. I stayed outside of London in a village called Kings Langley and there was a lock that I crossed when going to and from the train station. One day I watched a long boat like the one in your photo going through the lock. I had to laugh at your comments because I distinctly remember that it was the woman who jumped off the boat to handle the cranks for the gates. There are great shots.
i'll take a ride to the pub please!
Looks like a paradisaical spot! I've always wanted to take a canal trip in Europe! It's interesting that the women have the hard work of opening the locks. I'd guess women are the key to getting things done just about everywhere! :)
I still want to see cane hill on the Kennet, I think lock flights look great
Friends took a narrow boat along a canal last summer. They found the locks exhausting - there was just the 2 of them and they thought it could work better with more people to spread the workload out a bit! Plus it was the woman doing the locks (often in the rain) and the man steering. ;-)
The locks really remind me of our canal.
I don't think we even have locks in the Philippines. I find the whole concept fascinating. But yes, it does look like hard work.
What trim little boats!
ALOHA from Honolulu
ComfortSpiral
=^..^= <3
This looks like a perfect place to spend summer days.
I love visiting locks! There is a big lift one here near Berlin which I need to feature.
I grew up with sleuces, etc. in Holland - always fun to watch!
As much as I'm afraid of deep water I love the idea of a canal trip Lauren, have you and Mr LOL taken such a trip?
Great coverage, super interesting!
Super cool to read your comments and read also of many of your own canal boat adventures. Thank you for sharing!
Tanya - The pub at Hatton is up a hill so you'll have to walk there like I did :).
Grace - I have gone a couple of restaurant narrow boats over the years but there were no locks. Loved it!
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