Fradley, Fazeley and on to Rugby

It's Monday evening as we sit, moored at Rugby for the second evening having just witnessed a short burst of rain, the first in over a week. The days have been terrific, plenty of sun with the last hint of rain last Friday week when we dropped off our visitor; could she have been the culprit?

After completing the paint jobs in Fradley Junction, they were the cream coloured paint jobs, we headed off to Fazeley Junction, the junction of the the Coventry and Birmingham and Fazeley Canals. A nice four hour lockless cruise finishing with filling the water tank at Fazeley before mooring up. I didn't need my BW key, it seems a regular thing now to leave water points open, with the more regular resultant vandalism requiring a pair of pliers to operate the tap.

Rachael designated Fazeley Junction a green paint zone so it was time to paint the stern hatch and the swan neck. In the time between coats we negotiated the bus system and headed into Tamworth, around 6 kilometres away, with a population nearing 80,000. Tamworth, a large market town, has a good sized town centre with all the usual high street shops but more interesting for me was St Editha's Church and the castle.

Tamworth Town Hall with statue of Sir Robert Peel

St Editha's Church sits where there has been a church building since the 7th century, the tower dating back to the 14th century, one of the oldest parts of the current building.

Several stunning glass windows...

And something different with guilt sections on the ceiling and additioanally, guilt bosses.

And the castle opened in 1070 and added and changed since then but mostly it has been a home for the powerful families of the area.

Inside the castle walls

The view from the castle over the park beside the River Tame.

We completed our green paint tasks at Fazeley, which were the aft hatch and the swan neck, over three days and have cruised on stopping again at Polesworth, Hartshill and Rugby, all of which we visited around three weeks ago. Tomorrow we will head off to Braunston and a little further on turn on to the Grand Union Leicester Line to head to the top of the Trent and Mersey Canal.

The soccerball count now sits at 24. It was 25 but a floating bicycle helmet deceived me until I was right next to it.