Two for One

Two villages that is. In two different counties. In one day.  And I have the pictures to show for it today too.
Still not been able to retrieve the ones of Rothersthorpe, Buckby and Watford flight.  You’ll have to imagine our journey yesterday from Weedon, just a short part of the Grand Union mainline before turning off onto the Leicester line towards……well, Leicester, but we stopped at Crick last. A small, attractive Northamptonshire village of warm honey coloured or red stone, some thatched, some stone roofed and some corrugated tin. This quiet peaceful village is taken over every year when the Crick Boat Show arrives at the end of May. Bringing crowds to the village and boats to moor along the canal as the show events take over the marina area.  The village community have embraced the boating event and enjoy it too.  This weekend they are holding their scarecrow festival, none were out to be seen today though.
But that’s enough talking, writing about it, here are the pictures….



Crick Wharf, with the Moorings restaurant in the one of the old wharf buildings.













Hope you can read the sign, marking the area known as the Washbrook.








The two churches, United Reformed and the Parish Church

Inside the Parish Church, St Margaret’s of Antioch, there were a few interesting things that caught my attention.



Right by the door stands a wooden sentry style box…..
Apparently this was for the Rector to shelter in when conducting funerals at the graveside, nowadays I suppose he uses one of the umbrellas.



 
The windows were beautiful, but a bit wonky.  Especially the one on the right, the walls have dropped a bit and the stone frames are warped.  There are plans for some restoration work to be done to the church.


The Thomas Elliot Organ is a rare example of an instrument following the old English tradition. The organ was originally built in 1819 by Thomas Elliot of Tottenham Court Road for the Chapel Royal at St James' Palace, London before eventually finding its current home here.
It has recently been restored, it would have been nice to hear it in action.

 

And a number of bright, colourful wall hangings, based around the cross theme.

Around the village green, some lovely cottages.

And of course some of the thatched buildings.

With no locks to do today, it's a very long summit pound after the Watford staircase, we followed the twists and turns of the cut and through the tunnel of Market Bosworth.  Now we are in Leicestershire and we stopped to take a wander into the village here.


Husbands Bosworth tunnel entrance,








All Saints Church at the end of the High Street.

 

 

Down Honeypot Lane, our noses were telling us there were cows nearby and sure enough just between the houses is suddenly the entrance to Honeypot Farmyard with the cows just going to the milking parlour.

Houses of red brick here, not stone, making up a very pretty village, with a couple of pubs, a school and a useful shop, though you’d miss it if you didn’t know it was there.


A row of recently renovated cottages, a really nice job has been made of bringing these back to life.  I found a picture of how they looked in 2007.


And finally………………

                                                              ………….the view from our open front doors this evening.

Tuesday, Northampton – Weedon, 12 miles, 17 locks
Wednesday, Weedon – Crick, 9 miles, 14 locks, 1 tunnel
Thursday, Crick – Laughton Hills, 15 miles, 0 locks, 1 tunnel