On the Grand Union Canal at Stoke Bruerne is this block of houses once used as workers cottages for the adjacent warehouse and mill. 

Cottage 4 was the one I stayed in, a break off my little cruiser boat and I recall that this was the start of the first Coronavirus lockdown. 

The cottage itself was built during the industrial revolution. 

You could only book it a week at a time so I that's what I did. It was about the time I installed a memory foam mattress into my little cruiser, doing away with the bits of foam I had slept on for the preceding 12 months. 

It may seem like a cosy, quaint village cottage but looks can be deceiving. It was cold, damp and because it was tall and skinny, I remember having to walk up and down the stairs whenever I wanted something like my phone charger. 

I saw it for sale a couple of years back for around £500,000 but given it's a heritage building, you can't add things like double glazed windows or alter the structure in any way. Besides climbing up and down those stairs everytime I wanted to do anything would do my head in. But it was a nice week off the boat, a chance to do some laundry and explore the local village.