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