Leaving Milton Keynes

It had been quite an eventful couple of weeks at home with a pretty intense final weekend. Mike was involved in a concert by the Wadebridge Choral Society (Haydn's Creation) and from Sunday afternoon through to Tuesday afternoon he was part of the panel interviewing and selecting the next Dean of Truro, an important appointment to the senior person in the cathedral. On Tuesday evening, Christine was elected as Lay Chairman of Churches Together in Wadebridge - not that she was expecting this when she arrived at the start of the meeting having served a couple of years as Secretary.

We set off this morning in really good time, leaving home at half past eight having packed the car. We are planning to reach Barton Turn, near Burton on Trent on this trip but the drought restrictions couple with river flooding mean that we have had to be quite careful about our timings for each of the first few days at least. There are three flights of locks on the next part of the Grand Union which have limited opening hours and if we miss the slot then we have to wait to the next morning.

Fortunately, after the heavy rainfalls over the past few days, it was dry for the whole of our drive back up to Milton Keynes where the boat was moored. Apart from missing a turning on the Bicester ring road (how can you do that with sat nav?) we made excellent time and arrived at least half an hour earlier than estimated when we set off.

Entrance to Milton Keynes Marina

This meant that we could set off sooner as well - by now we are quite slick at the unloading process and there were no locks ahead of us. We handed back the mooring key and were under way.

The run up through Milton Keynes is a level pound but with a pleasant aspect almost all of the way. There is a variety of bridge design, some are original (or restored versions), some modern accommodation bridges and occasionally dual carriageways pass over on slabs of concrete.

One or two of the traditional shaped bridges look a little worse for wear and we hoped that the cracked parapets would last until we had passed underneath! It looked as if it would not take much to dislodge some of the bricks.

The weather turned sunny for a little while and was rather pleasant but a few drops of rain arrived and the temperature dropped dramatically.

Linford Wharf House

At Linford the old wharf house has been restored and much in the style of houses in the nearby village which was here for a long time before being surrounded by the modern housing estates of the new city development.

A sign on the adjoining wall marked the point where a canal once branched off to give access to the nearby Newport Pagnell. Just ober a mile long with seven locks, it closed in the mid nineteenth century and much of the route was used to construct a railway.

Half a mile later we passed under the old railway bridge, now used as a footpath and cycleway, which also linked with Newport Pagnell. Alas, the only way of getting there now is by road (or bicycle!)

Grafton Streen Aqueduct

Grafton Street Aqueduct is a modern structure constructed to carry the canal over one of the new main grid roads for which Milton Keynes is famous. Shortly afterwards we moored for the night - Wolverton is just ahead and stopping here means that we can pick up a paper tomorrow morning which might be more difficult one we have passed through that town.

6.4 miles - 0 locks