Frankton Locks and Cressy's dry dock

Monday 19th October 2009. Between Ellesmere and Frankton Junction we passed a striking canalside house (by Coachman's Bridge 62). As you can see, the sun was out, illuminating the house nicely against the darkish sky.


And so to Frankton Junction. We got there at about 1230 - our "newest" bit of waterway for a while.


There are some fine buildings here too.


On our way back the next day I discovered that the garden of the house pictured above cunningly disguises an old dry dock. It was in this dry dock, according to a plaque on a wing wall of the third lock down, that Cressy was converted to leisure use. Cressy was later to be owned by Tom Rolt, who did a bit of refitting at Tooley's boatyard in Banbury.


LTC Rolt famously wrote Narrow Boat, the book credited with kick-starting the use of canals for pleasure. Rolt was a founder member of the Inland Waterways Association, set up to fight for the preservation of canals.