Held at Theale

On Tuesday I received  an email alert from C&RT to say a boat had sunk in Fobney lock, about five locks ahead of me, closing the canal, an update Wednesday informed me that it would be cleared today (Friday) at 8am so I didn't think it would affect my plans to be in Reading for Friday, however,  yesterday a further update said raising the boat had proved more difficult than anticipated and the canal would stay closed until Tuesday 16th, so I am held at Theale, moving forward seemed pointless as moorings would be pressured by the closure.

It would appear the prop shaft snapped and water quickly filled the engine bay sinking the unfortunate boat, although that has not been confirmed, fortunately no-one was injured.

Yesterday I took a walk around Theale, to get to the town from my mooring you have to cross the railway and then walk through an industrial estate, about 15mins. Directly opposite my mooring is Shenfield Mill, I cannot find out a lot about it other than at one time it was Kate Bush's recording studio, but here's a snap of what can be seen of the original mill through the trees, the main access is a heavily secured and without views of what is within.

The first building that greets you n the town is The Crown Inn, not been in and positioned on a roundabout I am unlikely to try it out.

I could see a church in the distance so turned left away from the high street to investigate.

Holy Trinity Church.

And then walking further along passed this delightful looking hotel.

And of course another pub The Volunteer, another one I will give a wide berth to due to the fact it advertised a sports bar, a definite off putter for me.

I then headed back to the high street, I understand at one time this town had 13 pubs! Oh what fun that could have been thirty years ago on a Friday night :-) I did pass another that was closed down and forlorn.

Not much more of note, the post office building was quite nice though.

A fairly large Co-Op store is useful for us boaters, another two pubs in the high street neither of which looked particularly inviting from the outside and the usual mix of shops, although there did seem to be an absence of the almost mandatory coffee shops,  perhaps the locals won't pay the exorbitant prices for their cup of 'java'.

After returning to the boat I decided to walk along and photograph Garston lock, I have mentioned turf sided locks but not pictorially explained them, they were very common on the Kennet and Avon but now only two remain, Monkey Marsh lock and this one.

They were built like a normal lock except for the top two feet which was open and 'turf sided', this saved building cost but resulted in a lot more water being needed to fill the lock, the usual water shortages were not a problem on the Kennet and Avon so these were built on the river sections.

You can see the water level when full by the vegetation change of colour

They are a bit more difficult because you don't have a lock side to walk along for the length of the lock just little platforms by the ladders, so boat placement has to be considered more carefully by the single hander, I struggled with the first one having to go up and down the ladder a few times until I was able to get the boat in the correct position but now I think I understand them!