The Way to Hatton Locks

29th July 2019 – Kingswood Junction to the locks.

The one thing which was putting us off going to Warwick was the Hatton Locks. There are 21 of them and they are relentless – one after the other and nowhere to moore up in between (so we were told). We were told to expect to take around 6 hours to get through them all. The only good thing is we are going down rather than up, and the boat moves around a lot less going down, you really only have to keep an eye on the stern to make sure you don’t end up on the cill at the back of the lock.

As a general rule, the Grand Union canal is wide and the tow path is clear and ideal for mooring on. Unlike Stratford canal, which is narrow with very tight bridges (ping pong bridges as I like to call them). The sailing on the GU is easy going and with all the good mooring, its easy to pull over for a rest whenever you feel like it. On the way between Kingswood and the Hatton locks, there is a tunnel which is just under 400m long. It is wide and straight and you could probably get two boats past each other if required.

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Hatton has an adventure park! Who knew! There are also a collection of shops and a garden centre as well, so we can finally plant some flowers and herbs in the container we got from Wootton Wawen’s farm shop complex – by jove, it’s all coming together!

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