Trips 13th & 14th July (Grand Union + Southend)

 Trips 13th & 14th July

13th July – Rural Northamptonshire on the Grand Union Canal

With the weather looking dryer than the previous weekend I decided to head towards Northamptonshire for another section of the Grand Union Canal, a walk I was hoping to have done last weekend but axed it with the weather.  The day began with the 05:59 service from Grateley (a quiet 159017 & 158880) to Woking where due to the sprinters arriving a couple of minutes early, I made a connection into the service from Alton (450006 & 450064) for the run to Clapham Junction.  The service I was aiming for was the one from Southampton which turns into a stopper from Basingstoke, a service I could swear never used to call at Clapham Junction unless my memory is playing games.

Anyhow at Clapham, the Overground was a bit chaotic with cancellations but thankfully there was no issues with the Southern service to Watford Junction formed of a busy 377705 to take me to the bay platform at Watford Junction where after a photograph of some passing freight (and a 57 hauling some coaches) I made my way across to platform 6 to board winner 805001 for the quick dash to Milton Keynes Central, another 805 into my book (and certainly Watford – Milton Keynes is a lot more interesting than Birmingham New Street to Coventry).

805001 at Milton Keynes

At Milton Keynes I headed across to platform 3 for the next Birmingham train to take me to Northampton (350238 & 350109) where after visiting the toilet I headed out of the station and towards the town centre, originally I was going towards a Tesco but got lost and ended up popping to Boots to grab items for lunch before making my way to a bus stop on the Drapery for the rough 2 hourly Stagecoach operated route 88 to Silverstone with bus 10537 on this reasonably busy bus.  This bus took me to the outskirts of the village of Blisworth as I alighted at Station Road just beyond the railway arch carrying the WCML.  An interesting route going out of Northampton town centre towards Delapre, then via a big Tesco before Milton Malsor.

My walk began with a short walk along station road to join the Grand Union canal, firstly heading underneath the railway and towards Gayton Junction where the Northampton arm branches off (a walk I will do later starting from Weedon).  After a photograph at the junction, I headed back the same way I came, passing the remains of a railway bridge (which I think carried the old Northampton - Peterborough line).  I went underneath Station Road and headed towards Blisworth itself, skirting round the edge of this small village leading to the northern portal of the Blisworth tunnel.

Northern Portal of Blisworth Tunnel

Like most canal tunnels, this tunnel lacks a towpath, but thankfully the walking route bypassing the tunnel was straight forward along Stoke Road (even if it was a bit hilly), then along a footpath leading to the canal at the southern portal, passing underneath the remains of the old Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway route.  After a quick photo of the southern portal, I carried on the towpath towards the village of Stoke Bruerne, passing the canal museum and reaching the Stoke Bruerne flight of locks.  I continued passing the locks and into countryside as the canal did some weaving following the river Tove at first before skirting round the edge of Grafton Regis where the towpath which had been reasonable for a rural canal turned more overgrown, having to dodge nettles and thorns on both sides the path.  I passed a small boat yard near Yardley Gobion (with an unusual "beware of elderly ducks" sign designed to get people to read the "slow down passed moored boats" section underneath it).

The canal continued in peaceful countryside before reaching Cosgrove with the towpath flipping sides at Thrupp Wharf and thankfully returning to a more reasonable path in terms of overgrowth.  The towpath flipped sides once more at a lovely old bridge in Cosgrove itself.  I continued, passing some old tracks embedded in the ground near Cosgrove wharf near Cosgrove junction where the remains of the Buckingham arm branded off.  I crossed the lock and had a short stroll along the restored section (now used to moor boats) with the section beyond the bridge being saved for another trip where I can do something involving the Ouse Valley Way.

Cosgrove Junction between Grand Union & Buckingham Canal

I returned to the main Grand Union canal, crossing the lock once more and onto the final section towards Wolverton, crossing over the Great Ouse on the Cosgrove (Iron Trunk) Aqueduct reaching Wolverton with the canal skirting round the northern edge of the railway works.  Ironically this was one of the worst section being narrow in places with added hazards of low trees.  I reached the footbridge near Wolverton station which is where I started a walk back in March.  I put on a extra bit of speed going up the stairs and towards Wolverton station arriving a minute or so before the next London train.  I was worried when the PIS suggested the train was a single 4 coach unit but thankfully it was a pair of 350s.  All be a pair of 3+2 seated /2s (yay!) with 350248 leading 350237 as I managed to grab a seat in the former 1st class area for the trip towards Watford Junction.

At Watford Junction I had a short wait before winners 730010 & 730006 rolled in from Milton Keynes to take me to Euston, where I had a short wait for 710263 on the next Overground to Willesden Junction, the train getting very busy after Queen's Park due to the Bakerloo line having some issues.  I made my way to the high level platforms at Willesden to jump onto 378230 on the next Clapham Junction service hoping to make a completely unofficial connection to a Salisbury service.

730010 at Euston

Due to being in the right position of the train (near the front) I easily made the connection to 158883 & 159108 on the next Salisbury service, made easier by being a couple of minutes late.  The train reached Overton with some seriously heavy rain bouncing from the platform, thankfully by the time the train reached Grateley the sunshine was back, all be with some dark clouds.  I had a gentle stroll home, feeling strange returning at 18:15 on a Saturday where I had some food from the freezer and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  An enjoyable stroll along the Grand Union canal, the last 2 sections (other than the Leicester Arm) are easy enough to do on a Sunday [Weedon to Northampton as Weedon gets an hourly bus service & Warwick Parkway to Olton, just a case of waiting for both good weather and no engineering works.  I did make a start with rough plans for the Leicester arm of the canal breaking it up into smaller sections with places served by buses.

14th July – A trip to the Southend Coast

The idea for today was originally going to be a trip to Hertford for the old railway line path towards the outskirts of Welwyn but due to the final of a kickball competition I didn’t fancy risking using Great Northern from Welwyn Garden City and with engineering works with Greater Anglia only being hourly from Hertford East and Hertford North being buses that idea was put on the back shelf again.  I changed my mind from doing the river from Harlow to Bishop’s Stortford again on Saturday evening after looking at engineering works in the Southend area to dust off an old plan I had for Southend.

With engineering works in Salisbury, I decided to drive to Andover for the 07:03 train (good thing I did as the next couple services were cancelled) with a lightly loaded 9 coach service with 159106, 159003 & 159014 for the trip to Waterloo, only really getting busy after Woking (in the front coach).  At Waterloo I had nearly an hour before the next train towards Southend Victoria, so I took the Jubilee line (set 96075 + 96118) to London Bridge for a Northern line service (51598 + 51599) to Moorgate for the long walk to Liverpool Street going via the Lizzy line platforms, just something to waste some time.  After confirming the next Ipswich stopper wasn’t needed, I took a seat on unexpected winner 720103 on the next Southend service (unexpected because RTT was quoting a 720/5 for this service, so must have been a set swap).  This service took me to Prittlewell where my walk began (and I’m sure most of the passengers who were getting off at Prittlewell had tickets and weren’t simply using that station to bypass the ticket barriers at Southend Victoria a mere half a mile away.

720103 at Liverpool Street

I headed towards Priory Park, passing the priory itself to pick up a path called the Prittle Brook Greenway, a mixed used path following the route of the Prittle brook (a mostly dry river which I would imagine only flows during the winter or after heavy rain).  Not the most interesting of paths as it was quite stop-start due to crossing roads, but it did have some nice parts with woodland near the Leigh on Sea end.  When this path ended, I went along some roads to reach the top of the Belton Hills giving some beautiful views of the Thames Estuary.

View from Belton Hills, Leigh on Sea

There was many steps from the top of the hill to reach the bottom of the hill near Leigh on Sea station, before I picked up a busy path following the High Street giving some views of Leigh Marsh, the road turned into a footpath after Victoria wharf, a path running between the water (on the right) and the railway line on the left heading towards Chalkwell where the railway headed inland.  I continued my stroll along the path next to Chalkwell Beach changing to Westcliff Beach when a busy road came in alongside the pavement.

I continued along the esplanade towards Southend pier, going underneath the pier towards jubilee beach, carrying on heading towards Thorpe Bay and Shoebury Common, passing many beach huts along the way. After Shoebury Common beach I went into the Gunners Park nature reserve, following the path alongside a beach the public can't access (with many warning signs about it being dangerous due to being an old army firing range area.   After the park I carried on into Shoeburyness passing the east beach walking to the end of the path (where it runs into the Pig’s Bay military place).  A gentle walk along the road (over the rusting remains of the Pig’s Bay railway line) and to Shoeburyness station buying a single to Southend Central making use of the new fare structure.

Leigh on Sea Waterfront

It was onto the next C2C service formed of 357202 & 357029 for the ride to Southend Central, exiting the station and towards the city centre, passing the Knife Angel (which is quite stunning in real life) and via the big Sainsburys to Southend Victoria to board winner 720102 on the rear of 720580 on the next Liverpool Street service, my phone going straight on charge as it was quite low.

These 720s took me to Shenfield where I stepped back for a 15 minute fester for a service from Clacton (I think) with dud 720119 leading winner 720128 for the run to Stratford (where I ended up on a fold-down seat by the doors as it was quite busy).  At Stratford I headed towards the Jubilee line with the next service going from platform 13 and formed of 96062 & 96051, getting very busy along the way due to the kickball (and I was glad to get off at Waterloo).  After grabbing some dinner items from Tesco I headed to the main station at Waterloo to board the 17:45 service for Salisbury formed of a quiet 159014, 159003 & 159017.  I alighted at Andover, having a short walk to my car to drive home, relaxing for the rest of the evening.

Knife Angel in Southend city centre

A mostly enjoyable walk (the second section from Leigh to Shoeburyness was more interesting that the first section). I did notice the older train was out on Southend Pier when I passed close to the pier, a trio of 720s into my book was a bonus as well (as well as departing platform 1 at Southend Victoria which from my notes clears that station).  Nice weather for a waterfront walk as well.  More photos can be found on my Flickr, thanks for reading.