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We are now over the old A5 looking towards Buckingham. After Millwards Coalyard the canal got ever close to the road until it was separated by just the towpath and a thick, unkempt hedge. On the north west side of the canal at this point, after the council houses of Mount Hill Avenue, was a small rectangular field, which the village team used as a cricket field for a couple of seasons after they were thrown out of the Black Horse field at the top of the village. It was never much good as a cricket field as it was really too small, wet and bumpy. The canal edge had a number of willows along it at this point, but in it were two abandoned narrow boats - a tug and butty. I can still clearly remember them and although our parents used to warn us off playing on them for fear of us getting trapped and drowning - we still did. I am pretty sure they were of wooden construction, but they were sunk and listing, the holds full of water, timbers green with lichen, their small cabins dank and mouldering. I can still remember the great rusting hulk of an engine in one. They faced towards Buckingham and I reckon they must have been there a few years, but after the last boat to Leckhampstead in 1932 or it could not have passed! They eventually extended Mounthill Avenue and built what is now Willow Grove on this field in the early '70's?, filling in the line of the canal and cutting a new road through it from Deanshanger Road. The line of the canal can still be discerned between Deanshanger Road and Willow Grove as a slightly raised hump and beneath this the remains of two old narrow boats still might lie. What a project for the 'Time Team'. As far as I can remember they will be buried between what was Millwards Yard and the entrance to Willow Grove. Bridge 3 led into the aforementioned rectangular field and into a marshy area at the foot of another field. The track that lead over this bridge was opposite Holton's Garage and I think the Holton family built a bungalow in the "marshy" bit and used the bridge as access to it. It was certainly originally a timber bridge with a planked deck and wooden handrails but I think it was later replaced. After this bridge the canal followed the line of the Deanshanger Road on its western side, again slightly below the level of the road. It was separated from the road by a high hedge but had plenty of water in it. Where the Deanshanger road bent right as it left the village'a length of iron railings separated the canal from the road to allow vision on what was a dangerous corner, this also allowed a view of the canal as it swept around the bottom of a field. This field was accessed by another timber bridge - your Bridge 4 - which as you say has probably now been buried under the junction of the new Old Strafford bypass. There was water in the canal at this point although the section after the bridge towards Deanshanger was heavily overgrown, at this point the canal began diverging from the road again, its line defined by a row of trees and a hedge on the towpath side. Bridge 5 (Puxley Road) was about the limit of my youthful wanderings. Again I can remember this as a timber bridge, I think it was replaced with the existing structure in the early '60's. The pipe went in about the same time I think. The odd thing about these timber bridges is that I can remember no evidence of how they worked. I do not remember any uprights or balance beams that would indicate they were lift bridges, but the ends of the bridges were square, not radiused as you would expect with a swing bridge. On balance I think they were probably lift bridges but with the lifting gear long removed. I can also remember odd stretches of the canal as it went through Deanshanger, our School Bus to Towcester used to go that way. Bridge 8 and 9 in Deanshanger were both narrow "hump backed" bridges but bridge 7 was a timber decked one. After Bridge 9 the canal curved east behind what is now a small housing estate, a pub (Kings Head??) and school to rejoin the line of the A422. I think there were a couple of bridges on this section servicing fields. Obviously, the new Deanshanger bypass has destroyed much of the next section of canal but when travelling along this road on a bus in the direction of Buckingham you used to be able to see the line of the canal quite clearly across the fields to the south. Finally, I can remember the lattice girder bridge on the Thornton road but I never did quite understand what the canal did in the vicinity of Caftleford Bridge but wonder if the road eventually adopted the line of the canal. Back in the late 70's I needed some old bricks for an extension. I was building on a cottage at Wicken and knew of a small derelict barn in the field by the side of the road at this point. I bought the "barn" from the owners and transported the bricks to Wicken on a tractor and trailer. I have absolutely no idea whether the barn originally fulfilled a canal function, or whether it was a farmer's barn. Whatever, as this part of the world is predominately stone I would guess those old bricks originally came in by canal! A popular Sunday walk would be to Cosgrove to have a drink in the Barley Mow, or in the other pub long closed, that was on the other side of the canal through the dark wet tunnel under it. We also used to walk to the locks to watch boats working through, and then right along the embankment and over the Iron Trunk to the Galleon. The Sand and Gravel pits were working at Cosgrove (Cosgrove Caravan Park now). A little diesel engine used to pull trains of tipping trucks up from the grading plant at the quarry to the wharf edge before the locks; you can still see the rails today I believe. As kids we used to hitch a ride on it for the short and bumpy journey. KB Thanks for sharing your memories Keith, don't forget us if the old memory bank gets into gear again. ED
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