Thank goodness we had a good mooring at Bradford upon Avon for the weekend. We moored up here on Friday afternoon just before the world and his wife decended upon us. Having had the canal virtually to ourselves for the last three weeks we have had more boat movements past us in the last two days than the previous 21 combined. Virtually all hire boats and one that managed to hit us whilst we were moored up.
We had a enjoyable journey up here stopping over night at Seend Cleeve where we celebrated Sarah’s birthday at the Barge Inn and then the following morning we joined NB Warneford for the trip to Bradford which was good as it was manned by 6 men from RAF Upavon so the locks were fairly easy on us. The boat is actually owned by the base/RAF and is available for men from the station to use. Its named after a famous WW1 pilot from the Royal Naval Air service who received the VC. From Wikipedia:-
“On 7 June 1915 at Ghent, Belgium, Warneford, flying a Morane-Saulnier Type L, attacked the German airship LZ 37. He chased the airship from the coast near Ostend and, despite its defensive machine-gun fire, succeeded in dropping his bombs on it, the last of which set the airship on fire. LZ37 subsequently crashed in Sint-Amandsberg[6](51°3′43.2″N 3°44′54.7″E).[7] The explosion overturned Warneford's aircraft and stopped its engine. Having no alternative, Warneford had to land behind enemy lines, but after 35 minutes spent on repairs, he managed to restart the engine and returned to base.”
Amazing the things these guys did.
We have had a restful few days here (apart from the boat traffic) and wandered around the town which is very attractive but totally blighted by the traffic (cars) through its centre. But get away from that and it is very quiet and historic including a Saxon church.
To add greatly to our enjoyment we met up again with NB Perma and spent a very enjoyable evening with Jane and Robert (and Bella their Lab)
Tomorrow we start to wend our way to Bath but will take a day or two to get there to try to avoid the bank holiday exodus.
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| One of many superb buildings in Bradford upon Avon |
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| Tithe Barn at Bradford reckond to be the finest example in the country |
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| Inside the Tithe Barn |
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| Inside the Saxon church |
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| Ditto |
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