The Good, the Bad and the Coventry

On Sunday we left Atherstone and retraced our route down the Coventry Canal to Suttons Stop - or Hawkesbury Jct. to use its official name. The last family to man the stop lock here were the Suttons and so it became Suttons Stop to boaters. This is where the North Oxford Canal meets the Coventry canal. I have written before on the subject of stop locks and also on Coventry

To the right and top, beyond the stop lock is the Oxford Canal via Hllmorton and Braunston.

To the left and top is our route from Atherstone


Behind and left the Coventry canal continues to Coventry.

Behind and right is the Greyhound pub which stops serving food at 7pm on Sundays
Having heard a report of stones being thrown at boats in Coventry basin we decided to get down there to show that boaters are not intimidated by such behaviour.
First we had to meet up with Ali & Elaine from nb Ellie Mae who live nearby.  Unfortunately The Greyhound pub at Sutton's Stop does not serve food after 7pm on Sundays so we went foraging in their car. On Monday morning we set off around 8.30 and arrived in Coventry basin about three hours later.  We only met a couple of boats, one a hire boat now operating out of Coventry. We passed on the short straight stretch by Cash's 100 - soon after we had to go down the weed hatch to remove assorted polyethylene bags from the prop, presumably stirred up by their passage.Earlier this year J J Cash & Co the company making woven name tapes went into administration. However, their website is still operating so hopefully they have been rescued.

The 100 appear to be  undergoing some renovation.

A little further on the renovation is more drastic.

This area is destined for housing I would guess.

The only? three-storey jettied building in Coventry

We did not spend so much time looking around Coventry as on previous visits as I had an oil change to do and M was collecting a dress that had been shortened for our nephew's wedding this weekend.
Silver Stitches is in the Medieval district where an assortment of old buildings have been relocated to form a kind of open-air museum. Except that they are all in commercial use so Museum is not really the the appropriate  word.

Elsewhere in the city historic buildings still exist in their original locations and sometimes fulfilling their original roles.

The College of Bablake and Bond's Hospital has occupied the present site since the 13th century although the buildings are somewhat later.
Originally a hospice and school for boys it now provides accommodation for the elderly.




With all this attractive architecture in the city who on earth was crass enough to approve the behemoth of  IKEA ?