A trip to Northampton.

For some reason I had forgotten about this trip and only remember when looking for a particular photo. At the end of July, John and I went away for two days (one night). We had planned to leave early on Friday morning but in the end it was nearly lunchtime when we set off. We were heading for Northamptonshire as this is a county we had often driven through but had never stopped to visit. We had a hotel booked in Northampton and had some ideas of what we wanted to do. We stopped for lunch at the motorway services and then carried on to Weedon Bec where we visited, Bramble Patch, a quilt shop. At one time I used to have their monthly subscription box, which was fun while I built up my stash. Now I'm trying to reduce my fabric. I didn't take a photo of the outside but here are a few picture from inside. The shop was divided into small areas and had a good range of fabrics. There were quite a few quilts decorating the walls.

This area had a good range of rotary cutters threads etc.

Christmas fabrics and advent calendars were already on display.

They also had a large class room area  with quilts decorating the walls.

It's a relatively small shop but packed with lots of goodies. We visited the week before the Festival of Quilts and the staff were very busy packing up merchandise for their stand. I did buy some fabric to use as the binding for this quilt. 

We then drove a little way down the road to the ordinance depot which was also in Weedon Bec. In the early 1800s the British Army needed a safe place to store muskets, cannon and gunpowder.

Weedon Bec in Northamptonshire was the area chosen. In 1804 work began to build eight storehouses, canal, powder magazines and walls, It took ten years to complete. On site barracks, parade grounds were built with workshops and the stables to house hundreds of horses. there was also a hospital and prison. Huge numbers of items passed through the Depot, as it supplied everything soldiers would need to fight. To help with the organisation, hundreds of civilians worked alongside soldiers. The men and women working here were sworn to secrecy about its role. It was eventually closed in 1965. The buildings now hold a range of small businesses. At each end there is a matching building and the one nearest the entrance housed a small exhibition.

We visited the exhibition and also walked around the site. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be in the vicinity when it was full of gunpowder and munitions. Having explored the site we drove into Northampton and found our hotel. We went for a walk around the city and came across the Guildhall which was impressive.

On Saturday we had planned to do a walk at Braunston, along the canal. We parked our car near the village hall and set off along a footpath that headed through fields to the canal.

There were a lot of blackberries growing in the hedgerow. We didn't stop and pick any as we didn't have a bag or anything to put them in It would have been great to make a bkackberry pie.

We joined the canal at one of the locks, using the bridge to cross to the tow path that would take us to the Braunston tunnel.

Opened in 1796, Braunston tunnel is on the Grand Union canal and about 800 yards east of Braunston top lock. The tunnel is 2,042 yards long and was built by Jessop and Barnes. It is 16 feet wide and 12 feet 3 inches high. Two 7feet wide boats can pass each other in the tunnel but a wide beam needs to wait for assistance to go through the tunnel.

On the day we visited there was a lot of traffic on the canal and it was taking a long time for boats to get through the locks. The walk was beautiful and it was fun watching the boats

There are some tight spots and you have to be a good steerer to get round some of the tight corners.

At one point we cam across a mallard with their ducklings.  There was a bit of a panic before parent and children headed for the water.

For part of the walk we were away from the canal. We came across this old church. It was all locked up so we couldn't go inside.

it rained briefly whilst we walked but not enough to be a problem. The walk in total was about 6 miles. When we got back to the car we decided we needed to get a drink before heading home so we drove through the village where we found the local church. The spire was amazing.

Indie there were a couple of nice stained windows 

I liked this little tree in the reading are of the church.

and this old box looked very old and interesting.

There was some nice embroidery on the Mother's Union banner.

As we left the village I took a last photo of the windmill that was next door to the church

We headed home slowly. We had both enjoyed our short stay breaks. 

Take care

Lyndsey