Wednesday August 1st, Stone - Great Haywood

That black cloud that followed us religiously from Manchester to Sowerby Bridge and back, to Uppermill and then to Marple had seemed to have found us again. Yesterday was wet. Very wet, and last night wasn’t much better.

So, when we moved off this morning it was with leggings and boots on, although we decided not to put on the (un)waterproof wet weather coats. It was at least not raining.

And, fortunately, it remained dry until after we tied up which, given the grey scudding clouds that constantly overhead, was a miracle. That round yellow thingie in the sky made a couple of half-hearted tried to appear, but evidently gave up and went back to bed.

Aston Lock - cottage complete with 2 Mercs!

Once past the outlying residential (and highly desirable) suburbs of Stone, we had a short, quiet cruise to Aston Lock, the midway point between Shardlow and Preston Brook. Below the lock and under away again, we tore our thoughts away from the delights of Aston Marina’s wonderful farm shop. Perhaps a visit by car is called for some time in the autumn?

We enjoy the canal between Stone and Great Haywood enormously. It is nothing spectacular and there isn’t much to actually look at, but it just very quiet, peaceful, seemingly remote and pleasant in an understated English countryside sort of way.

Low ridges patrol both sides of the canal, but some way off. The River Trent runs almost parallel to the south and the few villages tend to be some way clear of the river, presumably to avoid any flooding.

The pseudo Jacobean towers of Sandon Hall, the seat of the Earls of Harrowby, peer through the trees on the ridge to the north as we approached Sandon Lock. Here we caught up another boat also heading our way and had to wait for them to descend before we could enter.

Although the main railway line and the A51 road run close to the canal on the northern bank, they don’t spoil the journey which remains tranquil and enjoyable.

My, it was busy though. We had passed many boats that we had seen pass us at Stone yesterday, and many more were heading towards the town. I still can’t get my head round how busy it is. We’re usually somewhere a bit quieter (like the BCN), and we’re not used to being in a summer holiday crowd.

Weston Lock

This was particularly so at Weston Lock where another boat in front of us (just pulled off the Weston village moorings) made a right pig’s ear of his approach to the lock, ending up across the cut with his bows in the opposite bank. Mind you there was a bit if a breeze blowing and he was on a curve……..

A boat had just exited the lock heading for Stone, so it seemed reasonable to assume that the boat in front would go into the lock – indeed his wife was already off and in sight of the lock, armed with her windlass.

However, the crew of ‘Hawkwood’ had other ideas. They were heading towards Stone and the lock worker evidently didn’t believe in making sure there was nothing coming before turning the lock round and emptying it. Had he done so, he would have seen two boats approaching and a lock worker.

So we all had a bit of a wait for them to ascend before everything sorted itself out.

After our friends in front had gone down, there was a boat waiting to come up, then we went down helped by someone off another boat waiting to come up. See what I mean about it being busy. After a couple of months on the Leeds & Liverpool, Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow, we’re used to going all day without seeing another boat – moored or otherwise!

Shirleywich sounds like a character in a children’s TV series. It is in fact a tiny hamlet on the A51. The suffix, ‘wich’ denotes salt extraction (as in Middlewich, Nantwich and Northwich), and the nearby village of Salt reinforces the theory that salt was once a cottage industry round here. The whole length of the offside from Weston almost to Great Haywood is a designated nature reserve, one of the only examples of an inland salt marsh in the country.

Eventually we reached Hoo Mill Lock where again we waited for a boat to come up before we could enter (with another one waiting below). From here it was  only a short but slow journey to Great Haywood past the long line of moored boats.

Mooring at Great Haywood

We wanted to use the Elsan point here to empty the loo but, as usual, there was no room to pull in. So we carried on past the junction which, as usual, seemed full of boats coming out form the Staffs and Worcs Canal, going into the Staffs & Worcs, making for the sanitary station and boats like us, just trying to make a beeline for the moorings beyond the junction where there was ample space to our surprise for us to pull in.

One couple tied up just beyond the junction bridge were sitting on their stern deck and admitted to enjoying the spectacle of boats moving every which way and usually making a pigs’ ear out of it. “It’s better than the TV” they said!

I carried the loo back to the boatyard Elsan point which now costs £1 a time. There is a notice on the door that states that it is no longer a BW facility, but belongs to the boatyard – hence the charge. I hadn’t realised this and had come without any money and, still recovering from lugging the loo all that way, I asked the nice lady in the office if I could return with the £1 later. Thankfully she agreed.

Apparently it has been the boatyard’s responsibility for 4 years or so and the notice has been up that long. In all honesty, I have never noticed it before. Hey Ho!