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Oak Close, BEDWORTH, CV12 9AJ

Easily missed, these cottages are a rare survivor of old Marston Lane, otherwise mostly built up with late Victorian terraced houses and 20th century council housing. The cottages appear to have been restored in the 1980s, and whoever did it was commended by the Bedworth Society, whose grey roundel can be seen on the front.

Looking west.

The Coventry canal. A boat repair yard is here and there are several boats moored nearby in varying states of dilapidation.

This boatyard is rather like the inside of my garage but on a gargantuan scale. By all accounts the operators pride themselves in the jumble of boats and bits stacked high into the sky. Very sadly though I am reminded of the images of harbours after the March 2011 Japanese tsunami. The dock does however have an interesting history. A local and early Bedworth charity bought farmland around the town, and when coal was found and collieries built to extract it the charities became very rich. One such mine nearby was consequently known as the Bedworth Charity Colliery. The nearest point on the canal to the colliery was at the corner here, and a wharf was therefore built with a tramway connection to the colliery in order to transport coal for shipping on narrowboats. Each narrowboat could transport up to 30 tons of coal. The wharf therefore became known as Charity Wharf or Dock. The colliery ceased production in 1924 and the tramway was lifted, so the dock remains as a surviving artefact of Bedworth's former coal mining history.

A boat storage facility on the Coventry Canal.

The boatyard is accessed from Furnace Road in Bedworth.

Canal boatyards come in all shapes and sizes. Some, usually associated with modern marinas, are squeaky clean while other more traditional yards can be a little untidy. And then there's this place on the Coventry Canal just south of Marston Junction. Most of the moored boats are in a dilapidated condition and look like they've not moved in years - some are probably awaiting scrap. Apparently normal boatyard services are offered but it would take a brave boater to stop here. See Image for some history of the location.