Thursday May 9th - Saturday May 11th

Definitely a day to forget.

It started off as simply not one of our best days cruising wise. The forecast was for high winds and heavy rain, and whilst we certainly got the former, at least the latter held off until we had tied up.

We were under way again at 7.20 but only for a few minutes as we soon pulled into the Wheelock Sanitary Station moorings to empty the loo, get rid of the rubbish and fill up with water – for the latter it would be the first time since we got to the Black Country Museum ten days ago.

Eventually under way for the second time we had an uneventful cruise through some pretty mediocre countryside. On leaving Wheelock your nostrils are assailed by a nasty niff – coming from the large canalside sewage works which we remember so well from having broken down there some years ago.

An exposed section with little or no trees to shelter from takes us round to Rookery Bridge and the crossing of the West Coast main railway line. It is pretty bleak and in almost gale force winds we were glad to be through.

Just beyond the bridges, a new housing development is rising from the ashes of a demolished factory. It is a strange place for a new estate hemmed in by the canal, railway and still extant factories.

The moorings of the Elton Moss/Carefree Cruising base are soon followed by a line of permanently moored boats before we come to the first of today’s locks, the top lock of the Booth Lane Three. Sounds like a jazz combo rather than a none too special flight of locks.

Here a boat had just exited the top lock (also known as Crows’ Nest Lock) as we approached which didn’t bode well for the rest of the day’s locks. However we were soon through and heading along the longish pound to the middle lock. Here the main Sandbach to Middlewich road comes alongside, separated from the canal all the way into Middlewich by just a few feet of grass. It does make the contrast between our slow pace and the speed of the cars when you are this close.

The section along the main road is completely open and in a strong wind as we had today it can be difficult to keep the boat in a straight line, particularly when trying to mawmble as the next lock is readied. Elaine hung back in the tail of the previous lock whilst I got the next one ready and that worked fine.

Middlewich is not an attractive town when put alongside places like Chester or Nantwich. It is, or was, a heavily industrialised town with many salt works. Only one of these is still going – the vast British Salt factory alongside the canal – but other industries have suffered in recent years. The Premier Foods plant that produced Bisto closed down some years ago and is still just a pile of demolition rubble, and the huge Hays Chemical Works are also largely demolished although a small part is still going under new ownership.

The King's Lock pub

As a result, the part of the town you see as you approach from the south is not the most edifying with demolished factories, closed pubs and a general run down feel to everything.

A single lock with the attractive name of Rump’s Lock takes us down to the town proper with King’s Lock and the pub and boatyard of the same name the gateway to one of the most nerve jangling junction anywhere on the system.



Junction bridge can be seen in centre distance from King's Lock

As you exit King’s Lock, the boatyard is on the off side, usually with a gaggle of boats tied up. Immediately opposite the Middlewich Branch heading off to the Shroppie and Chester enters under a bridge and the main canal bends round under another bridge. With Middlewich being on two of the most popular cruising rings, which diverge at this junction, and with two hire bases in the town, it is well known for its entertainment value.

 

 

Approaching junction from opposite direction, King's Lock in distance

 

 

 

However, things didn’t go well for us here. As Elaine (who had taken over lock work) helped the boat in front of us through, she misjudged the depth of a step and came down on her left knee too heavily. The knee promptly collapsed and she couldn’t put any weight on it at all.

Waiting for Wardle Lock

Thankfully the lady off the boat in front helped her up and, with my help, managed to get her back to the boat. Another boater off ‘Adagio’ – a share boat going back to Elton Moss – worked me through the lock which then left me with the task of getting round the sharp bend into the Middlewich Branch and up Wardle lock – for which there is no regular lock landing as the lock is too close to the bridge and junction.

I managed to get the boat into the side and tie up to a fence post whilst I went and prepared the lock. Once that was ready I returned to the boat and untied it and saw Elaine struggling to the back to steer the boat into the lock. Silly darling!

Anyway we managed to get up through the lock and then tied up a couple of hundred yards further on as we had intended to.

At first we had no idea what Elaine had done – possibly just twisted her knee. We got the leg propped up on a footstool whilst I prepared lunch. However, during the afternoon the knee had swollen quite alarmingly and she couldn’t move it or bend it at all without excruciating pain.

I called 999 and within 15 minutes an ambulance had arrived with 2 paramedics who took charge. Seeing as they would need to lift her out of the boat in a wheelchair and then have to carry the chair up a dozen or so steps and lift her over a metal barrier cum stile they had to call another ambulance to get two crews as 4 paramedics would be needed for safety reasons.

Eventually Elaine was manoeuvred into the chair and up and out of the boat but it took some strength on the part of the paramedics to get her over the stile as the room for movement was severely restricted. However it wasn’t too long before she was in the ambulance and being whisked away to the Leighton Hospital at Crewe.

Here she was admitted to the A&E Minor Injuries Unit where eventually her leg was examined by a doctor and she was sent for an x-ray. That revealed a fracture at the top of the tibia where it widens out to support the knee and a heavy plaster cast was put over the leg to keep it still until the consultant could look at things the next day.

The news that an operation might be needed (with a metal plate being inserted into the bone) upset Elaine, but she was very brave and was soon whisked upstairs to Ward 15 (the fracture unit) and placed in a bed.

I had a phone call the next morning telling me that she was in fact having the operation that day and there was no point in me coming for the first set of visiting hours (3pm-4pm) as she was likely to be in surgery.

When I went for the evening visit (7pm-8pm) she was still a bit woozy after the anaesthetic, but seemed relieved it was over. She was, however, very, very tired as she had had next to no sleep the night before due to the uncomfortable position her leg was in (suspended on a sling) and the noise – it was quite a busy night.

I had, meantime, picked up a hire car from Enterprise at Crewe and arranged a temporary mooring for the boat at Aqueduct Marina where we could stay until Elaine was OK to move around and perhaps steer the boat. We hadn’t thought too far in front as we honestly didn’t know how long it would be before Elaine was discharged or how immobile she was going to be and for how long. Other than the fact that when we restarted cruising, we would be heading straight back to High House.

When I went yesterday afternoon (Saturday) the difference was amazing. Elaine had had a good night’s sleep, and was looking alert and much more like her normal self. Her leg was now just raised on a pillow and was much more comfortable, and the knowledge that the operation was behind her was an enormous fillip.

I had got the boat from Middlewich to the marina, 6 miles and one lock – my first single handed lock! – and had got settled in there. I have to say that all the staff at the marina were extremely helpful.

Now it is just a question of sitting and waiting for Elaine to be discharged, and getting her moving again. We have no idea of timescales, but we have been assured that there will be a mooring at the marina for as long as we need (although we may need to move from time to time). Friends are bringing our car up on Monday, so I can take the hire car back and cut out that expense, and following an offer from Derek Harris – one of our oldest friends and my old cruising partner from the 1970’s – to crew for me, Elaine will probably go and stay with one of the girls whilst we get the boat back to High House.

So there is not likely to be another blog entry for some time and then it will be just the journey home. 2013 is going to be one of the shortest years for us cruising-wise but getting Elaine mobile again is the top priority.

As there was no internet signal yesterday at Rode Heath, there are two instalments today.

 

Wednesday May 8th

The forecast seemed pretty grim for today and the next few days with the lovely hot weather of the last few days soon to be a distant memory. As if to reinforce this we could hear heavy rain cascading down just before the alarm went off at its usual 6.20.

However, as we untied an hour or so later, modelling last year’s wet weather gear (which probably isn’t waterproof anymore after last year’s deluges), it was dry.

And so the final descent of Heartbreak Hill commenced. Just a small matter of 14 locks in 4 miles before our planned stop at Wheelock.

Thurlwood Steel Lock in 1977

First up was the two Thurlwood Locks - the top one being the site of the famous Thurlwood Steel Lock, a frighteningly sinister steel box in a steel frame opened in 1957 that was supposed to be the answer to the subsidence that was threatening the original lock alongside.

However, the boatmen hated it and it was soon taken out of use and workings recommenced through the original lock. It was cut up for scrap in 1988 and boats continue to use the original lock.

Site of the odl steel lock - original lock to the right

Derelict buildings alongside show how much subsidence there has been, and the channel into the site of the steel lock is still visible beneath its bridge arch from the lower side.

After the second lock open countryside takes over and a very pleasant length through Pierpoint Locks to Hassall Green follows. It starts through a tree nursery showing various types of trees in all stages of growth from almost bare twigs to almost fully grown specimens.

Unlike the other locks on Heartbreak Hill from Harding’s Wood Junction to Wheelock, the two Pierpoint locks were never duplicated and I’ve never seen an explanation as to why. They are now joined by a number of locks on Heartbreak Hill that have completely lost one of the pair (like Thurlwood) or the second lock is in a state of complete disrepair.

The former Lock 57 complex at Hassall Green in better days

At Hassall Green the very popular canalside bistro, shop and staging post for fuel, gas and coal has closed and appears to under conversion to a private residence. We had heard it had closed. Perhaps last summer’s awful weather and the following winter were the last straw. Also closed (although allegedly under refurbishment) is the village pub – The Romping Donkey. I remember the pub as a drinking hole from two trips doing the Cheshire Ring in the 1970’s and it later became quite a popular eatery. Apparently it was a case of another greedy pub chain demanding ever higher rents until the landlords decided enough was enough. Sad.

The M6 crossing at Hassall Green (complete with an Eddie!)

Hassall Green probably was at one time quite a pleasant place. That was until the M6 opened and  can be heard for some considerable distance, although, curiously, not from immediately beneath the viaduct when an eerie hush descends.

blighted this area with its visual and aural pollution. A vast concrete viaduct takes the monstrosity over the canal just below the second of the two Hassall Green Locks, and the din of cars and lorries roaring overhead

Some distance beyond the final eight locks of Heartbreak Hill commence – the Wheelock flight. These follow one after the other in fairly quick succession as the canal continues its drop into the Cheshire Plain. The locks carry the canal through the canalside settlement of Malkin’s Bank – an attractive place with the old workmen’s’ cottages facing the canal on both sides.

The major employer in the area was a chemical works based on the brine and salt extraction that has been carried on in the area for centuries. When the works closed, the buildings were demolished and in a sad indictment of our priorities that the site is now occupied by a golf course.

Eventually the final pair of locks is cleared and we can put the windlasses away for a bit. It’s not far now to the embankment above the tiny River Wheelock and the visitor moorings. We’ve had a tremendous run today – not only because it didn’t rain on us at all, but also because we managed to do all 14 locks and 4 miles in just 3 hours! It helped that all locks were more or less full and we could go straight in, but for a pair of creaking geriatrics, not bad!

Mooring at Wheelock

Tuesday May 7th

Being Bank Holiday Monday, and with the sun shining, Westport Lakes was as busy as we have ever seen it before with lots of people walking around the park just enjoying the sun as well the inevitable cyclists and joggers. There also had to be the one anti-social moron who rode up and down the towpath on a motor bike.

It was however curiously quiet boat wise. When we arrived just before midday there were only a couple of other boats there and one of those left in mid-afternoon. By evening there were just six boats tied up, well down on what we are used to.

Southern portal Harecastle Tunnel

Anyway, to this morning and another early start saw us get to the southern portal of Harecastle Tunnel about 20 minutes before its opening time of 8.00am. One other boat was already there and had, so the tunnel keeper told us, arrived too late to go through yesterday and thus had had to tie up. Because of that, the established procedure was to let overnight boats through first, so for once we didn’t have to wait too long, entering the tunnel in the first convoy of the day.

Harecastle Tunnel north portal

A, thankfully, event-free passage of the tunnel followed, Being able to use our new high power lantern we were able to illuminate the side wall to help me navigate through in a more or less straight line. It also illuminated the distance markers that are marked in 25 yard segments so we were able to gauge our progress through. One startling benefit of the lamp was that it illuminated stalactites forming themselves down from the tunnel sides and roof in places. Because of the iron oxides leaching out from the rock, they at first looked like a brown fern growing out of the brickwork, then you realised they were brown coloured stalactites – most unusual.

After a passage lasting 35 minutes we emerged blinking into the sunshine at the northern end where three boats were lined up to head south on the next passage through.

Approaching the top lock at Red Bull (Heartbreak Hill)

After passing through the two-arched bridges (only one arch of each is navigable) we passed Pauline & Andrew again on ‘Griffin’ who we have been leapfrogging since Stone, and headed for the top lock of the Red Bull flight, passing as we did so the junction with the Macclesfield Canal – the route from the north we had used last year. The top lock is the start of Heartbreak Hill – a long flight of 26 locks split into various sections of which Red Bull is the start.

We didn’t have a bad run down the locks,

Iron Oxide staining on locks walls

many of which are duplicated. We pulled in for a few minutes at the Manchester & Pennines Regional Office of C&RT and utilised the sanitary station to empty the loo and get rid of the rubbish. Whilst there, a number of “suits” arrived, no doubt for some high-powered meeting.

Once through the third of the flight the traffic and industry that has dogged us since leaving the tunnel suddenly clears away and the canal descends through another lovely length of countryside. It is a gently rolling landscape, well wooded in places, but with pasture and crops as well. It all folds in and around itself, rather like the folds on a good woman.

Towards the end of the Red Bull flight of 6 we passed at one of the duplicated locks a couple on a boat we have seen before – ‘Fair Fa’. They know our friends John & Janice on ‘The Oak’ and we had had a text from Janice just a couple of days ago saying they had met ‘Fair Fa’ and they were heading our way. They also know Penny & Richard.

At the foot of the flight we came up behind a single handed boater who we helped down the next 6 locks before we tied up. We had a reasonable run down the next 6 locks which are split into three groups – Church 2 Locks, Hall Lock and the Lawton Treble Locks. We were fortunate in the first pair to meet two ascending boats which made life a little easier, but we had a long wait above the middle of the Lawton Treble Locks – the middle one is the only one of these three to be a single lock having lost its duplicate a long time ago.

There was a boat preparing the bottom lock and we decided to wait above the middle lock so as to leave it ready for him and save a lock full of water. In the time it took him to get the bottom gates open, walk back and get his boat (yes he was another single handed boater), get the boat in, tie it up and raise the top paddles (very slowly) we could have been down and through the duplicate bottom lock!

When it turned out to be a 25 foot tiddler with an outboard for an engine, it was all a bit frustrating!

However, we were soon through and making for Rode Heath where we tied up on our usual mooring opposite the Broughton Arms.

It has been a glorious day with hot sunshine – indeed after tying up out came the summer tops and, in my case perhaps somewhat foolhardily, shorts.

Mooring at Rode Heath

 

Again - 3 days for the price of one. We had a very poor internet signal on Friday & Saturday at Stone and none at all yesterday at Barlaston. Thank heaven's for Westport Lakes and the Potteries!

Monday May 6th

What a perfect day! Bright sunshine from the start and it’s lovely & warm! The weather obviously isn’t aware that it’s Bank Holiday Monday!

Wedgwood Factory

Under way at 7.20 we were soon past the moored boats on the Wedgwood Factory moorings and heading for the first lock of the day. This is Trentham Lock, situated on the outskirts of the Potteries suburb of the same name.

Trentham Lock

Because of the antics of the “little darlings” an anti-vandal device has been fitted to the top ground paddle only in an effort to deter their predilection for raising the paddle and wasting water. However, the top paddle is out of action completely anyway. As this is a very deep lock – just an inch shy of 12’ – it took a long, long time to fill.

The rather dreary suburb of Hem Heath follows. If there is an old, historic core to the place, the canal doesn’t find it. To while away the monotony of suburbia one is forced to compare the efforts of the local population in back garden attractiveness terms.

It is amusing to see the effect of the BBC’s Ground Force team. Clearly some householders were sufficiently enthused at the time of the programme’s heyday, but after, what, 12 years or so, some of the timber decking is looking decidedly ‘tired’.

Once free of suburbia, a short period of that scrubby, horse paddock pastureland follows of the sort that you find clinging to the fringes of most built up areas. The railway line closes in again on one side and then, on the other, the attempts of Mother Nature to reclaim the dereliction man has left after the closure and demolition of the buildings of Sideway Colliery are evident in the scrubby wasteland. Part of this area is slowly being colonized by large identikit warehouse style buildings so common these days. Two brick built cottages dating from the early part of the C20th stand sandwiched between the canal and railway looking rather incongruous in their present surroundings. Were they railway cottages, canal cottages or something to with the colliery –perhaps something to with colliery to railway interchange sidings?

The towering stands of the Britannia Stadium (home to Stoke City FC) rise up on one side with the council’s waste incineration plant with its tall chimney on the other. The waste plant is a mirror image of the one adjacent to the Wolverhampton 21 – both built alongside canals, but disdaining any connection and no hope of using water transport over King Road.

A major road junction and bridge starts a mile or so length featuring alternately brick and concrete canyons in which the canal is forced by modern road improvements and old industry. Readers of this log will be aware I infinitely prefer the latter.

The old industry includes the dereliction of the former site of Kerr Stuarts, the major engineering firm where Tom Rolt was an apprentice until bankruptcy caused their closure, and the former North Staffordshire Railway workshops – now home to a variety of small businesses. A wagon works, or at least somewhere where wagon wheels are produced still hints at the area’s former railway influence and, surprisingly, it was working on a Bank Holiday.

Diversification in the Potteries

A boatyard where we have never seen a soul and which is full of old fibreglass cruisers with no current licenses has an interesting sideline in activities offering line dancing, country & western, air rifles, archery& tacle (yes it is spelt that way) and bait amongst its boat engine services.



Stoke Bottom Lock

Crossing over the River Trent – now considerably smaller in size even than when we first met it at Great Haywood – a long brick canyon takes us to Stoke Bottom Lock. When major road “improvements” were carried out in the 1960’s, the bottom two locks of the Stoke flight had to be combined in one new concrete lined and deep lock. Subsequent road “improvements” carried out a few years ago negated that need with a revised road system. So the powers that be could have left things alone if they’d thought about doing the C21st improvement first.

Former lock house

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new lock house built with the new lock still stands alongside but now in private ownership.

As we approached the second lock – Cockshutt’s Lock (named after the adjacent railway sidings) – we saw the bottom gates

Cockshutt's Lock

opening. Ah –there must be a boat coming out. But there was no boat in the lock. What was going on?

We had met up with Robert, known locally as Rob the Lock. He is a youngish chap who, whilst not being an official C&RT volunteer lockie, acts as one with their tacit approval. He did the training last year but was unhappy with the placement C&RT came up with for him – Newcastle Road Lock at Stone.

Old factory at Twyford Lock

He prefers to be mobile and act as a lock-wheeler, using his bike to get from lock to lock. He kindly helped us up the rest of the flight. He told me that he just loves helping people through the locks and doesn’t mind how far he has to go. He has twice helped single handed boaters from Stone to Middlewich and vice versa (being offered a bed for the night half way along) and he has also helped boats up as far as Stockton Brook on the Caldon.

We said farewell to him at the top lock where he jumped on his bike and pedalled down to meet up with a boat that we had just exchanged places with.

Not far to go now to our usual mooring in the Potteries. First though we traversed the mixture of old and new (mainly old) with the Festival Park developments and new industrial units interspersed with remains of old brick walls, the still derelict remains of the Shelton Steel Works before entering what for me is one of the most redolent areas anywhere in the country that brings a real sense of the activity that must have gone here for years before closure, abandonment and dereliction set in.

The area from the erstwhile Burslem Arm through Middleport and Longport is one of despair and hope. Despair that so many old industrial buildings are just quietly mouldering away, and hope in that some factories are still working, one in the process of being rejuvenated.

Dereliction at Middleport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Former Anderton Canal Company's loading bay

Middleport Pottery

The latter is Middleport Pottery. Here the entire complex was bought by the Prince of Wale’s Charitable Trust with a view to restoring the buildings to provide an educational facility and tourist attraction as well as keeping the pottery going and setting up premises for other small craft businesses to make their home. There is plenty of restoration work going on.

Restored warehouse at Longport Wharf

At Longport Wharf, the old canal warehouse that suffered major fire damage a few years ago is now fully restored.

 

 

 

 

 

Dereliction at Longport x1

 

 

Dereliction at Longport x2

And then, through another short section of closed pottery works complete with bottle kiln, we went through a bridge and in front of us stretched the long line of moorings that adjoin the popular Potteries green area – Westport Lakes. Here we tied up to gather our wits for the passage through the infamous Harecastle Tunnel and strength for the start of Heartbreak Hill tomorrow.

 

Mooring at Westport Lakes

Sunday May 5th

We enjoyed our stay in Stone as we usually do. It is a pleasant town which goes out of its way to welcome its canal visitors. The Farmers’ Market was excellent and we picked up some lovely locally produced cheese, crusty bread, big field mushrooms and all sorts of other goodies. The meal last night was excellent. We have now had lovely meals in Stone on three different occasions – Thai, Tapas and now Italian.

Star Lock at Stone

We thought we had excelled ourselves this morning untying at 7.15, but another Challenger boat had gone by just a couple of minutes before. So it was a case of waiting at the bottom lock (Star Lock) whilst ‘Verity’ went up in front of us. Apart from the two boats there was hardly anything else moving at all. The crew on ‘Verity’ helped us at the second lock (Yard Lock) by raising a bottom paddle.

We pulled in for a few minutes at the sanitary station below Newcastle Road Lock to empty the loo and get rid of the rubbish before continuing up to the last of the four Stone locks, Lime Kiln Lock. Past Roger Fuller’s boatbuilding yard are more moorings and here we passed Andrew & Pauline on ‘Griffin’ who we had shared locks (and the tidal passage) on the lower Grand union and Thames a few years back. They had passed us yesterday and slowed down for a quick chat.

At the foot of Meaford Locks we could see ‘Verity’ climbing up the second lock, but by the time we got to the third of the four lock flight, we were right behind them and returned the favour by closing the top gate for them on this and the top lock.

Above the top lock the canal runs through the first mundane landscape since leaving Wolverhampton. Although wooded, the landscape is healing itself after coal extraction and a former power station finally bit the dust. The site of the power station is still blighted by demolition rubbish and an electricity sub-station, but matters improve as the canal enters Barlaston. Here we passed ‘Verity’ – they had evidently got off for a paper or supplies – just as Elaine did. I carried on to our usual mooring spot just before the official visitor moorings for the Wedgwood Factory.

Mooring at Barlaston

It seemed strange tying up at just before 10.30 in the morning, but we had done our usual three hours and to go onto the next possible mooring spot – either at Etruria Junction, or as we prefer at Westport Lakes – would have meant a long day. We’ll leave that for tomorrow!

 

Friday May 3rd

After a wonderfully quiet night at Tixall Wide, we set off for the morning’s cruise to Stone. We seem to have dropped seamlessly into having the alarm clock set for earlier than we have done before in previous cruises (except for special circumstances) and getting good early starts –before 7.30. To some boaters I am sure this is quite late by comparison with their routine, but it’s fine for us. We get a good start without too many boats around – indeed some days we travel for an hour or more without seeing another boat on the move.

It is only a mile or so from the Wide to the junction at Great Haywood and the northern terminus of the Staffs & Worcs Canal as it makes a T-junction with the Trent & Mersey Canal here.

Most of that mile is a procession of moored boats on both sides followed by twin aqueducts. The first is over the River Trent, whose valley we now follow, at least as far as Stoke. The second is now over nothing in particular but was presumably over an earlier mill stream. The remnants of the mill complex have been subsumed into and are surrounded by modern industrial units and one entrance under the aqueduct is now part of a concrete yard and driveway.

Immediately following is the end on moorings of the Anglo Welsh hire base with one of their longer boats moored rather inconsiderately close to the exit from the second aqueduct calling for some fairly tight and accurate steering.

A long blast on the horn probably woke up every boater on the visitor moorings who was still in bed (most of them) and a burst of throttle and with the tiller hard over we swung round to the right and headed for Stone.

Again progress is slow as most of the next mile has off side linear moorings. Most of these are from the relatively new marina, but also from the small mooring basin and linear moorings at Hoo Mill Lock – our first of the day.

It was here that a boat that had left Tixall shortly after us came up as we ascended the lock. It was one of the former Challenger share boats ‘Invincible’ which, as we later ascertained, was making its way back to Aston Marina, just before Stone.

From Hoo Mill to Stone is another of those understated, typically English landscapes as the canal parallels the Trent with low ridges of hills marking the valley edges on both sides. It is an open landscape with, apart from the river banks, few trees. It is also a stop-start sort of progress with moored boats dotted all the way to Stone. It is rightly a popular section, with large marinas at either end. The main Derby-Stoke road, the A51, and the main railway line shadow the canal to the north and east, occasionally dipping their toes into the canal world by running down nearer the canal in places, but it is essentially peaceful and tranquil.

A private boat pulled out behind us soon after Hoo Mill so we now had two boats trailing us. At Weston Lock another former Challenger boat was tied up - ‘Victorious’ – but we were able to ascend without having to wait. As the private boat pulled into the lock landing for the next locking, ‘Victorious’ pulled up behind us meaning that‘Invincible’ was now fourth in a queue.

As we entered the outskirts of Weston upon Trent came one of those moments that seem to happen quite frequently in the canal world and act as a reminder that Sod’s Law is alive and well in the C21st – namely that if you are going to have to pass a boat it will happen in the most awkward location possible.

Sure enough as we approached the moored boats outside Weston Wharf we met a boat heading for Great Haywood. Nothing too sinister in that you might think, but at the point where we would pass the boats were three abreast on the wharf and a curve in the canal’s course occurred immediately after.

Fortunately we all seemed to know what we were doing (or it was just blind good fortune) and we managed to pass without clouting anything, going aground or any of the other highly unpleasant and embarrassing options that could have happened.



Ornamental bridge

Canal, railway and road are squeezed into a narrow channel as the village of Salt is passed to the south west, and Sandon Hall & park on a ridge to the north east. An ornamental bridge, insisted onby the local landowners at Sandon Hall, takes a minor road over the canal before we reach Sandon Lock. Here we all started to stack up. Two boats were in front of us and by the time they had moved through, we were the first of four boats waiting our turn. It seemed quite alien for us as this was the first time on this cruise that we have had to queue and wait at a lock.

Waiting at Sandon Lock

Eventually we were through and on our way through more of the same landscape, although we do pass salt meadows – now a nature reserve which, with the earlier village of Salt, give a clue to the former industry that prospered in this area since Roman times.

Although we had lost one of the boats in front of us into Aston Marina, another had exited from the marina’s exit channel (they have both in and out channels) in front of us. This meant another further delay at Aston Lock, but we were in no hurry – our destination was only a couple of miles or so in front of us and after Aston Lock we had no more to work today.

Aston Lock

A boat descending warned us about the pound above Aston Lock which, they said, was about 8” down. And sure enough, once through the lock, we struggled to make any speed over the final mile and a half to our intended mooring place.

We had to keep to the centre of the channel as the sides were both well exposed and mud and rocks, normally buried under a few feet of water, were now exposed. Indeed we thought we wouldn’t be able to get into the side at Stone at all.

When we reached the long length of moorings it wasn’t the depth we were initially worried about – just that there didn’t appear to be any spaces left for us to use. Fortunately, there were about two boat lengths left before the winding hole and we made for the side. Well, the bow made it to the bank, but the stern ended up about a foot out. Nevertheless, we have tied up in worse places and before too long we were closing the boat up and heading for Morrison’s for a refill of the store cupboard.

We found out from the boater moored up behind us that there had been a problem at Aston Lock overnight with neither set of gates, top nor bottom, being able to be closed properly with the result they leaked all night semi-draining the pound up to Stone. Early in the morning it was 18” down and moored boats had a decided list. Someone had already been in touch with C&RT and additional water was being let down with the result that it was now only about 6-8”. By the time we got back from the shop it was much better and by the evening it was back to normal.

We had found out that the Stone Farmers’ Market is held on the first Saturday of the month in the main pedestrianised street, and we wanted to visit this. So we decided to make our stay in the likeable town of Stone a two night affair, and also celebrate nothing in particular by having a meal in the lockside Italian Restaurant.

 

Although we have enjoyed a couple of warmer days, it is still noticeably cooler at night. So much so that when we rose this morning there was a light frost on the roof and ropes. Despite the better weather, it is still necessary to light the fire in late afternoon or early evening.

With another early start (7.25) we had a short hop to the sanitary station adjacent to Penkridge Lock where we disposed of rubbish and emptied the loo. Whilst the lock was filling Elaine nipped next door to the shop to get a paper.

Through the lock where we passed Brenda & Brian Ward’s boat ‘Colehurst’ (they return tomorrow to the boat for the weekend) and Tracey Arbon’s boat ‘Tea Clipper’ (Facebook friend), we soon exited from the last houses of Penkridge and started out on a journey through some of the nicest, most understated countryside the Midlands has to offer. The canal now joins the tiny River Penk and drops down a number of locks which become more spaced out and shallower as we drop down towards the Trent.

Longford Lock and Park Gate come and go and by now the sun is really beginning to generate some warmth so the layers are swiftly shed. Park Gate Lock is the headquarters of Teddesley Boat Company who used to run a fleet of hireboats. It was on one of their boats that I had my first involvement with canals with a week’s cruise on the Black Country Ring in 1975. The rest, as they say, is history!

Between Longford & Park Gate Lock, the M6 becomes a nuisance again roaring up alongside just a field’s width away before crossing on a long tunnel like bridge as it, unusually, crosses the canal on a skew.

The landscape hereabouts used to form part of the Littleton Estate base on the family home at Teddesley Park. After being used as a prisoner of war camp in WW2, it was demolished. The family owned a large acreage hereabouts including many collieries and ironworks.

Shutt Hill Lock

Shutt Hill Lock takes us alongside a minor road for some distance before the canal skirts the periphery of the wonderful named village of Acton Trussell. The village name conjures up images of rustic locals sipping their beer outside a thatched pub, yet the face it presents to the canal is one of C20th urbanity with very large executive housing with manicured lawns and landscaped gardens. A large modern hotel cum conference centre caters for wedding parties and business conferences. The church lies lonely and forlorn in the fields some distance from the village. One assumes there is an older, more attractive part of the village …. Somewhere.

The name of Acton Trussell should sound familiar to fans of the wonderful and irreverent comedy due Hinge & Bracket. The name, if not the location, of Acton Trussell was borrowed by Staffordshire-born entertainer Patrick Fyffe (aka Dame Hilda Bracket) in creating the fictional village of Stackton Tressel, home of the eccentric spinster musicians.

Cruising near Acton Trussell

Thankfully the motorway now moves out of sight and sound as the canal enters a dreamy, remote section despite the proximity of Stafford, just a mile or so away to the west.

 

 

 

 

Cruising near Acton Trussel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deptmore Lock

Deptmore Lock has a surviving original lock cottage. When we came this way a few years ago the cottage was completely derelict, not surprising as there is no road access to it. Last time it was noticeable that remedial work had started and the cottage is now thankfully fully restored and lived in. A track of loose chippings seems to have been laid round the adjacent farmer’s field to give access, which the postman was using in his van as we dropped down the lock. It is all very pleasant and bucolic.

Restored Deptmoer Lock Cottage

Stafford Boat Club Clubhouse & moorings

And yet, round the corner comes the large and impressive headquarters of the Stafford Boat Club utilising an old colliery arm for their moorings and the Stafford suburbs of Radford, Baswich and Wildwood. For a couple of miles the canal resumes concourse with the modern day world but turning course to the south east to join the River Sow (which has just subsumed the Penk – don’t you just love these names ..) the canal re-enters the dreamy world of river meadows backed by low hills as we approach the heights of Cannock Chase.

Aqueduct over the River Sow

The main line railway comes alongside in a flurry of Pendolinos and overhead gantries and the attractive gardens of a residential park home site add a splash of spring colour to proceedings. At Milford, when the heights become too high for comfort the canal sheers off to the north east following the Sow which it proceeds to cross on one of Brindley’s typical solid and low slung aqueducts.

Tixall Lock

What follows is just charming. The gardens from some very expensive properties drop down to the canal, the type of property where you employ someone on a sit down mower to mow your lawns for you. Tixall Lock is the shallowest at just 4’ 6” and comes with its whitewashed bridge and cottage – altogether a chocolate box image to treasure.

The anticipation is running high now as the canal slowly widens, turning a corner to reveal one of the quietest and loveliest moorings anywhere in the country in Tixall Wide. There are two schools of thought as to why the canal widens to such an extent here. One is that Brindley included a lake into the course of the canal; the other is that the owners of Tixall Hall wanted him to place the canal in a picturesque setting as the price for allowing the canal to pass through their land.

The Hall was demolished in the 1920’s, but the Elizabethan Gatehouse survives as do the remarkable semi-circular stables.

Anyway, whatever the reason, it is a stunning piece of canalscape and one we have used every time we have journeyed this way. Today was no exception and again we tied up here for a quiet and peaceful overnight stop.

Mooring at Tixall Wide