Lengthsman's Cottage

Lowsonford, Warwickshire

Overview

This snug barrel-roofed cottage, dating from c1812, is a rare survivor of its type on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. It was built for the 'lengthsman' - who maintained the lock as well as the next stretch of canal. 

  • Dogs AllowedDogs Allowed
  • CotCot
  • Mobile signalMobile signal
  • Fire or StoveFire or Stove
  • Open SpaceOpen Space
  • Parking AvailableParking Available
  • BathBath
  • MicrowaveMicrowave

Beds 1 Twin, 1 Double

Sleeps
4
4 nights from
£380 equivalent to £23.75 per person, per night

Simply built with limewash finish

Things have changed a great deal since the Industrial Revolution, but today Lengthsman's is a sociable spot where you can relax and watch narrowboats negotiate the lock. The construction of the Stratford-upon-Avon canal began in 1793, during the heady days after the French Revolution. Its projecteers did not foresee the credit squeeze that followed the opening of hostilities against Napoleon, but fortunately, an astute local land agent called William James stepped into the breach to complete the southern stretch of the canal, which includes Lowsonford. Working with engineer William Whitmore, James cut costs dramatically. His engineers, more accustomed to building bridges than houses, simply adapted the techniques they knew best to house the men who worked on the canal, building them snug, barrel-roofed cottages next to the locks they supervised.

A rare feature on Britain's canals

Barrel-roofed cottages are few and far between on our canals and the South Stratford canal has one of the best sets to survive. Six were built originally, between Lapworth and Preston Bagot. Landmark’s cottage at Lock 31, now known as Lengthsman’s Cottage, is the least altered from its original form. It was known first as the Lock House, then more recently simply as Ned’s Cottage, after Ned Taylor who lived here for most of his eight decades. We acquired the Cottage in 1992 when the National Trust took on this stretch of the canal, which passes through gentle Warwickshire. In 2006 we needed only to refurbish the cottage and it is now preserved as a rare example of the expedients adopted in those years when the Industrial Revolution was changing the face of Britain.

Floor Plan

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Map & local info

Lengthsman’s Cottage stands sentinel over the lock, towpath and a small road bridge. The Stratford-upon-Avon canal happily glides past the front door and through the rural village of Lowsonford.

There are a whole host of things to do in the local area. 

Baddesley Clinton is open throughout the year, so you can enjoy the gorgeous gardens as they change throughout the seasons. The house itself is a historical delight, home to the Ferrers family for over 500 years. 

Warwick Castle is fantastic for children, with trips into the dragon dungeon, and Horrible Histories events. 

Fleur de Lys in Lowsonford comes recommended, as does Finwood Hill Farm Shop.

At the end of a fun day out a trip to Henley Ice Cream parlour is always an extra treat. 

Coughton Court – a splendid Tudor house and gardens, with a collection of Catholic treasures – is within half an hour’s drive, as is Shakespeare’s Birthplace in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon, which is also home to the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as lots of shops, cafes and restaurants.

Discover local walks for dogs with our friends at Walkiees.co.uk, the dog walks community.

Take a look at our Pinterest Map for more information and ideas for things to do during your stay at Lengthsman's Cottage. 

Clear directions
Essential info
What you need to know about this building
  • Yes. You are welcome to bring up to two dogs. A charge of £20 per stay is made for each dog.

    Please contact booking enquiries if you have an assistance dog, for which there is no charge.
  • From the main road.
  • Henley-in-Arden – 3 miles.
  • Yes – there are two parking spaces adjacent to the property.
  • There are electric night storage heaters and electric panel heaters and an open fire in the sitting room.
  • Unfortunately, there is currently no arrangement for the purchase and delivery of logs, however details of local sources will be provided with your order confirmation.
  • To check up-to-date mobile network coverage in the area, visit signalchecker.co.uk. Due to the location and structure of many of our buildings, signal strength may differ to those indicated.
  • The majority of properties do not offer WiFi but many now have mobile coverage. Facilities in some properties rely on WiFi to function and we are currently piloting guest use of WiFi at a few of our buildings. We are going to extend the pilot across more properties and review customer feedback in 2025.
  • The kitchen is fully equipped with all plates, cutlery, fridge etc. There is also an electric cooker and microwave.
  • There is one bathroom with a bath.
  • There are no internal stairs.
  • Yes, there are low doorways throughout the property.
  • There is a garden to the rear of the property. Please note the close proximity to the canal at the front of the property (unfenced). The public towpath runs past the front of the Landmark.
Booking and Payment
  • If the weather is bad, please contact our booking office who will be able to tell you whether the Landmark is accessible. If the housekeeper can safely get to the building to prepare it then we consider that it is open and available for guests. However if we cannot undertake a changeover then we will do our utmost to transfer your stay to another Landmark, depending on what we have available. It may not be of a similar size or in the same part of the country as your original booking. If the building is accessible but the customer cannot travel due to poor weather in his/her local area then please be aware that Landmark will not provide a refund. However the customer may be able to claim on his/her own travel insurance. We recommend that all guests take out travel insurance when they first secure a booking.
  • We accept Maestro (if issued in the UK), Visa, MasterCard, direct transfer and sterling cheques drawn on a UK bank. Cheques should be made payable to the Landmark Trust except for Lundy stays and boat/helicopter tickets which should be payable to The Lundy Company Ltd. All payments must be in sterling.
  • The key arrangements will be included in the Further Infomation document which will be sent to you prior to your stay.
  • If your stay starts more than two months from the date you make the booking, you are required to pay a deposit of one third of the cost of your stay (or £100 per booking, if greater) at the time of booking. Camping on Lundy and The Bunk House at Llwyn Celyn must be paid for in full at the time of booking.
  • If you wish to cancel or change your booking, please contact our Booking Office on 01628 825925
  • At the moment we only accept payment in sterling.
  • Our housekeeper will leave the key in a suitable place, the details of which will be sent to you prior to your stay.
  • It depends. Some of our most popular Landmarks are booked up a long time in advance, but many can be booked at short notice. We will always have Landmarks free for the coming weekend so it’s always worth checking our availability list.
  • No, Landmarks are available to be booked for anyone.
  • No, all the information you need can be found on our website, although we’d like you to buy one anyway as it will be a pleasure to own!
Staying at a Landmark
  • Some of our Landmarks are suitable for people with disabilities or limited mobility. However, many Landmarks have steep or narrow staircases, uneven floors and thresholds, changes of level, low ceilings or beams, as well as indistinct colours on steps and in corridors. We recommend that you call Booking Enquiries on 01628 825925 if you would like to find out the suitability of a particular Landmark for anyone with a specific disability.  Further information on access when visiting Lundy can also be found here.
  • Yes, Landmarks are only available as self-catering accommodation. We do not offer bed and breakfast.
  • Landmark does not provide catering, but we can recommend Greycoat Lumleys who can arrange for expert and well-trained staff to cater for one evening or for your entire holiday. Their cooks and chefs are able to work with you to meet your specific requirements
  • You may bring up to two dogs to properties where dogs are allowed (please see specific property details for exemptions however dogs are not permitted on Lundy except assistance dogs). They must be kept off the furniture and under proper control. A charge of £20 per stay is made for each dog. Please contact booking enquiries if a registered assistance dog is supporting one of the guests, for which there is no charge.
  • Apart from two dogs (see above) no other pets are permitted.
  • Arrival is from 4pm and departure is by 10am.
  • We do not carry insurance for breakages. However we appreciate that accidents do sometimes happen. If you have a breakage during your stay, please let the housekeeper know and if appropriate we reserve the right to invoice you accordingly.
  • Yes, most of our Landmarks are perfect for children, with gardens to play in and secret places to discover. Our furniture is surprisingly robust and we positively encourage families to stay. However, some of our buildings may not be suitable for small children; for example, some of them have steep or uneven spiral staircases. We recommend that you call the Booking Enquiries team if you would like to find out the suitability of any of our Landmarks for young children.
  • Unfortunately, most of our Landmarks are not licensed for weddings. However, you may get married on Lundy.
  • All our larger Landmarks are perfect for gatherings of family or friends. You may invite an additional two guests to visit you during your stay, however they must not stay overnight. This is very important because our fire regulations specifically note the maximum number of people in any one building. In addition our properties are prepared, furnished and equipped for the number of people specified and greater numbers cause damage and excessive wear and tear to vulnerable buildings. Should this condition be ignored we shall make a retrospective charge per person per day (whether or not they stay overnight) for each guest over the permitted limit, the charge being pro-rated on the total cost of your booking.
  • We deliberately do not provide televisions and find that most people appreciate this.
  • One of the challenges of restoring unloved buildings is gaining access to them. We frequently have to negotiate rights with our neighbours and share tracks with them. In many cases tracks do not belong to us and we have no right to maintain them. Wherever possible we work with our neighbours to provide you with a good quality surface, but where this is a problem then you will be warned at the time of booking.
  • Yes, we have standard electricity sockets for UK appliances. If you are coming from outside the UK, you will need to bring your own adaptor plug(s). If you are visiting one of our European properties we have standard European electricity sockets. If you are visiting from the UK, you will need to bring your own adapter plug (s).
  • Landmark’s electrical systems have not been designed to provide continuous power from one socket over several hours.  If an ordinary socket is used to charge an electric vehicle, there is significant risk of an electrical fire and consequent danger to life.  Therefore, we are unable to allow electric vehicle charging from most of our Landmarks at present.

    We are working to provide Type 2 Electric Vehicle charge points at our properties where there is private parking.  Where this is available, please request this facility when booking the property to ensure the outlet is enabled on your arrival.  There is a small charge to cover the cost of electricity provided.  Please book this facility in advance.
  • No, we do not allow smoking in any Landmark.

Do you have other questions?

Our Booking Enquiries team can help with information about each building.

Booking Enquiries
01628 825925
[email protected]

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm


History

A rare feature on Britain’s canals

Barrel-roofed cottages are a very rare feature on Britain’s canals and the South Stratford canal has one of the best sets to survive. Six were built originally, between Lapworth and Preston Bagot. Landmark’s cottage at Lock 31, now known as Lengthsman’s Cottage, is the least altered from its original form. It was known first as the Lock House, then more recently simply as Ned’s Cottage, after Ned Taylor who lived here for most of his eight decades.

We have named it Lengthsman’s Cottage after the lengthsmen (or often lengthsman) who cared for a ‘length’ of canal and its towpath. It also allows us to distinguish between Landmark’s other Lock Cottage at Stoke Pound on the Worcester canal.

The South Stratford canal was built between 1812 and 1816, to link the river Avon into the main Midland canal network. The northern stretch of the canal came first, between Birmingham and the junction with the Warwick to Birmingham section of the Grand Union at Kingswood, constructed by engineer Josiah Clowes after an Act of Parliament in 1793. This was the great age of canal building, in the years just before steam, when waterways were seen as the transport of the future. Great profits were expected by investors – but the Napoleonic Wars put paid to that, as the country’s economy moved onto a war footing. Credit was squeezed and the cost of raw materials soared. By the time the canal reached Hockley Heath in 1796 the budget for the entire route through to Stratford had already almost been spent.

The scheme was in deep financial trouble, but in 1797 a bright local land agent named William James became involved. James re-surveyed the line and a further Act in 1799 enabled more funds to be raised. By 1802, the 18 locks down from the summit at Hockley Heath to Kingswood had been completed and the junction to the Warwick & Birmingham canal accomplished – but then work stalled again. James, however, had a vision of an integrated transport network and did not give up on the idea of linking the canal to the Avon. Backed by credit he had built up on other activities, he bought out other shareholders.

In 1812, he was able to start work on the southern section, under William Whitmore as engineer. James and Whitmore saw that cost control on the northern section had been somewhat lax. They introduced (perfectly serviceable) cost cutting measures and it is these that give the South Stratford canal its unique character.

Farm lanes were bridged not with brick arches but with prefabricated, cast iron split bridges These allowed the towrope to pass between the two leaves, the horse walking up and over the narrow bridge, so there was no need for a wider span to take the towpath. Stretches of narrow gauge railway were used to haul bricks and the tons of excavated spoil cheaply and efficiently over soft ground. Locks were reduced to a single narrowboat’s width, with single-leaf gates at either end, halving their cost. The cottages built to house the men who would care for the canal were built using the materials and techniques already available for bridge-building – simple rectangular brick boxes spanned by iron ties and brick vaults. The one at Lowsonford does not even have foundations, standing simply on the puddle clay used to seal the waterway. The cost of each cottage fell from £150 to £80, yet snug and durable dwellings were created that have stood the test of time. By 1813, the canal had reached Wootten Wawen, suggesting that Lengthsman’s Cottage was built around 1812-3, and in 1816 the long-awaited link with the Avon was achieved.

Yet steam came hard on the heels of the canals and their heyday was brief. By the mid-19th century, the waterways were already on the decline, bought up by the new railway companies who cared less for their maintenance than investing in the rail network. By the 1900s, the South Stratford was already a backwater bypassed by the Grand Union, which lay above a tortuous stretch of locks for those travelling northwards from Stratford. By 1947, when authors and Inland Waterways Association campaigners L. T. C. Rolt and Robert Aickman applied for passage through the bridge at Lifford Lane, the whole Stratford canal was all but impassable to narrowboats. Then in 1958, Warwickshire County Council applied for a Warrant of Abandonment for the canal, on the grounds that no boat had used it in the past three years. Fortunately, two canoeists were able to provide licenses proving that they had used the canal in that time – and so began a campaign to save it.

In 1960 the National Trust took on the South Stratford and employed a local architect and canal enthusiast, David Hutchings, to oversee its restoration for leisure use. The project became a celebrated example of canal restoration, achieved mainly by non-skilled labour – volunteers, prisoners from Winson Green, Royal Engineers, boys from Borstals, TocH: all played their part. In 1964, as part of the quarter-centenary celebrations of Shakespeare’s birth, the South Stratford was re-opened to traffic by Her Majesty the Queen Mother.

Meanwhile, through all these years of decline and rebirth, Ned Taylor had been quietly living in the Cottage at Lock 31. Born in 1921, Ned was one of a family of 11 children. The Taylors’ tenancy survived the various changes of ownership of the canal in the 20th century and when in 1992 the National Trust transferred the canal to British Waterways and the Cottage to Landmark, we also took on Ned’s life tenancy. The National Trust had somewhat modernised the Cottage when they took over the canal in 1960, but Ned’s needs were modest and so the Cottage survived without the larger extensions added to the other barrel-roofed dwellings.

A short history of Lengthsmans Cottage

Read the full Lengthsmans Cottage history album

Download the Lengthmans Cottage Explorer pack

 

Restoration

Little more than a refurbishment was needed

In 2005 little more than a refurbishment was needed. Externally the chimney stack was unstable and so was carefully taken down and rebuilt. Cement render was removed from the rear elevation and replaced with breathable lime render and the ‘eyebrow’ beneath the eaves on the canal-side elevation was carefully re-rendered. The lean-tos, holding today’s kitchen and bathroom, date back to the 1900s at least and the buttresses were put up in the 1930s.

The Cottage seems always to have been limewashed at most, rather than entirely rendered. Internally we kept the original cast iron range, as well as the practical gloss paint finishes of Ned’s time and the insulating plasterboard installed to the walls by the National Trust. We re-wired the Cottage, fitted a new kitchen and new night storage and water heaters. The sitting room and rear lobby floors are as we found them. Floors in the bedrooms are new Norfolk pammets and those in the kitchen and entrance lobby are modern quarry tiles as found. New iron casements were made for the windows to match the single surviving original that faces the canal. The garden and trees were neatened and a new fence put up. In Landmark’s care, the Cottage will continue to play its part in this congenial conjunction of canal, road and village, testimony to William James’s exemplary value-engineering.


Supporters of Lengthsman's Cottage

Landmark gratefully acknowledges the significant generosity of a private donor who funded the entire restoration of Lengthsman’s Cottage as a Landmark.

 

 

Availability & booking

Select a changeover day to start your booking...

What's a changeover day? and Why can't I select other dates?Explain MoreQuestion

A changeover day is a particular day of the week when holidays start and end at our properties. These tend to be on a Friday or a Monday but can sometimes vary. All stays run from one changeover day until another changeover day.