The Farm Shop and the Lock

This morning we wandered from Marsworth Junction across the fields to the Farm Shop at Wilstone Green using some of the footpaths I recorded the previous day.  The farm shop is probably the nearest shop to our mooring. 

There are a number of rather large and interesting homes around the canal junction.

This one is named “The Old Mill” presumably because it used to be a mill.

Once the entrance to the footpath at the Marsworth end is found the rest of the walk is almost a straight line through open countryside.

The farm shop was located less than 100 metres from the far end of the footpath.

Whilst it is named “Farm Shop” I suspect the majority of the produce isn’t grown or raised on the adjacent land. I happened to notice a large truck lorry arrive with “Cotswold Meats” on the side.

Jan likes to browse through the produce whilst I found the structure interesting.

The timber roof trusses have the natural curves from the original trees.  Joints are mortise and tenon. It looks like a former barn but the exterior roofline is made of perfectly straight lines.  Either the whole structure is a fake or some serious packing has been fitted between the exposed trusses and the roof.

Jan found the browsing interesting but didn’t purchase much because the prices were higher than her normal range.

Jaq & Les joined us for a couple of hours on Waiouru in the afternoon.  The full range of boating topics were covered…. including toilets!   A boat came down through the lock during our conversation and Jan asked the steerer if the top lock was now open.  Apparently it was, but only when CRT representatives were present.

I decided to walk back up the flight with Les & Jaq to see what work had been completed.  On the way Les pointed out the colourful duck in one of the disused lock side ponds.

It has some of the markings of a Mandarin Duck.  But not the full markings.  Perhaps his father was fooling around with the locals?

I was almost correct regarding my assumption over the lock repairs.  Instead of using steel straps to connect the top of the damaged gate to the new ground anchors the contractors have used ratchet straps.

The workers confirmed this is a temporary repair to hold the damaged gate in place whilst they carryout a more permanent repair.  The gate can’t be moved which means the lock can only be used by narrowboats. 

The join between the mitre in the gates is still leaking.

The ice in the junction pound has mostly melted and we will go up the flight tomorrow morning if the flight is free of ice.