Words

It was a chilly misty start to the day yesterday.

I had a bit of work to do in the engine bay, degreasing the sump area directly below the engine to get rid of the very small amount of diesel that had leaked over the past month or so forming a thin film over the area so I made a start on that once it had warmed up a bit and was all done by mid-day.

Looking on Google maps I saw that there was an Aldi about a 30 minute walk away and so I decided to stroll there and pick up a few bits and pieces, Hillmorton is not the most picturesque of places, at least not the route I took, it’s a fairly nice modern suburb of Rugby I suppose, but nothing much to photograph, as I drew near to Aldi I was not very happy to find it was being refurbished and was closed, luckily there was a Sainsbury Local almost next to it so I got all I needed in there.

I hadn’t really had much of a look around the area so I decided to stay another day. It was very chilly again today and I left it until afternoon before wandering up the towpath to look at the locks.

They are duplicated locks here, the first of these I’ve encountered so six locks in pairs side by side.

The middle pair has words carved into the beams

These words are known as Locklines and they were to commemorate the inaugural year of the Canal and River Trust (2012).

They were created by three poets, Roy Fisher wrote the lines used at Hillmorton, while Jo Bell and Ian McMillan wrote lines which can be found at other locks on the system.

The whole piece reads:

Working water

Held captive for a while

Then sluiced away to join

The world’s other waters

Again

Open

Enter and

Be lifted safe

With words at your back

These doors make depth

Power to sink your boat

Bodily into the land

And let it go riding out

Unharmed

Step at a time a river

Climbs carefully

Down through the town.

Not really sure about that but I suppose it's better than looking at a plain black beam?

I think tomorrow it will be time to move on again.