IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Sutton Stop, COVENTRY, CV6 6DF

This is known as Sutton Stop after the family name of the lock keepers here for more than half of the nineteenth century. The junction beyond is where the present Oxford Canal meets the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury. However, in 1771, when this section of the Oxford Canal was built, it ran another mile on to Longford, and due to the usual wrangles of the time, the Coventry canal ran alongside it, unconnected. A court injunction forced the companies to construct a junction in 1777, but this was at Longford, not Hawkesbury. The first junction here was made in 1803. This lock only lowers the water by a few inches. It was supposed to prevent the Coventry Canal Company "stealing" water belonging to the Oxford Company!

This is narrowboat "Laura", a hire boat from Napton. The stop lock, intended to prevent the Coventry Canal "stealing" the Oxford Canal's water, only drops the level by a few inches. More information can be found here: Image

A corner inside the Greyhound pub with a union flag and Winston Churchill curiously sharing space with a 'guess the weight' pumpkin.

Here at Hawkesbury Junction, the Oxford Canal (left) drops 15cm (6 inches) to the Coventry Canal (right).

Skipper George Smith needs all his years of experience as, with a butty on tow, he steers his full-length motor southwards at Hawkesbury Junction, (known to boatmen as Sutton Stop), which is where the Coventry Arm meets the main line of the canal.

Early - mid 19th Century pub alongside the Oxford Canal at Hawkesbury Junction, the point where it meets the Coventry Canal. The terrace beyond is of the same period. Both are grade II listed - see www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1265692 and www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1226778 respectively.

Here the photographer stands near to the roving bridge, but has swung his camera just over 90 degrees to the right, to take in the public house, the 'Greyhound', that stands almost opposite the roving bridge. In years gone by (much earlier than 1978) many working boats would be moored here while the boatmen socialised in the pub.

Quite a crowd is drinking outside this immensely popular canalside pub in the pleasant sunshine.

The Greyhound PH is a free house situated adjacent to Hawkesbury Junction where the Oxford Canal terminates at its junction with the Coventry Canal. This photo was taken from the Coventry Canal side of the Image] looking across the basin to the pub on the far side of the Oxford Canal.