South again on the Staffs and Worcs Canal

 Since our last blog we have turned left at Great Haywood off the Trent and Mersey onto the Staffs and Worcs Canal which is one of our favourites. We are often asked which is our favourite canal and our answer is usually 'the one we've just cruised' but the Staffs and Worcs certainly has a lot going for it.  So here is an update starting last Monday.

From our mooring on the edge of Rugeley we crossed the River Trent once again but on an aqueduct and carried on for a few miles to Great Haywood Junction. We passed a field with two narroboats. Not sure what the story is here but the green one at least was being lived in.

Here we are approaching Colwich Lock, the first of two that come before the junction. You can see Helen on the left walking up to operate the lock while Ian stays onboard to drive Leo into the empty lock.

After Haywood Lock we soon came to Great Haywood Junction shown here. Straight on the Trent and Mersey leads to Stoke on Trent, through the Harecastle Tunnel and down to Middlewich as a vital link heading north. Our way this time lay left under the bridge which is the start of the Staffs and Worcs Canal.

Soon after the left turn we crossed the River Trent for the last time.

Half a mile from the junction the canal crosses Tixall Wide, a lake which was dug at the request of the landowner to improve the appearance of the canal as it crossed his estate. It is an interesting place to moor and we've heard of boaters who, not having found a space to moor, have dropped an anchor in the middle!

Having left the Trent, the canal follows the valley of one of its tributaries the River Sow. here we are crossing the Sow on another aqueduct.

This is a turnover bridge where the towpath changes sides of the canal. The design is clever and enables a towing horse to cross the canal without having to be detached from the boat. If you imagine a horse coming towards you from the other side of the bridge on the right it follows a spiral path climbing onto the bridge and then comes down on the left still facing towards the camera.

On Monday evening we moored near a bend where a branch used to go down a lock and follow the River Sow into Stafford. There is work in progress to restore this link and here you can see the construction work.

This picture taken from the far side of the works shows scaffolding in what might one day be a lock which will take boats down onto the River Sow.

Having walked round the construction site we walked on towards Stafford. Here is the confluence of the Rivers Sow (left) and Penk (under the photographer's feet). There is a lot of water in both (and in all the fields) after the rain we've been having. From where we were moored the canal turns south to follow the valley of the Penk.

This is the sign at what will one day be a canal junction. We had come from Great Haywood and were heading for Wolverhampton. River Canal Rescue is like an AA service for boats and happens to have its headquarters on an industrial estate next to the canal here. Perhaps they paid for the sign?

On Tuesday we carried on south coming first to Deptmore Lock shown here. At 10 feet 4 inches this is a deep one and one of 12 along here that take boats up to the summit level.

At Shutt Hill, the next lock, there used to be a wharf and the odd looking white tipped post was used to pull boats round the corner and into the lock.

Coming out of Park Gate Lock a family of ducks sidled out of our way across the top of the bywash. For boaters to note - the branch of Midland Chandlers which used to be alongside Park Gate Lock at Penkridge has now closed.

This is a boat coming out of Penkridge Lock while we are waiting to go in. Notice the tunnel for horses on the right which goes under the road and gives access to the lock. On Tuesday, we moored above this lock at Penkridge and walked in the afternoon to the west of the canal over fields and back along the Staffordshire Way. Coming back through the village we popped into the excellent bakers and bought some treats to have with our tea. On Wednesday morning Ian joined a Zoom meeting of a council working group in Knaresborough (oh, the wonders of modern technology) while Helen went shopping. So we did not set off until midday.

Here we are in Otherton Lock where Leo is taking a foam bath! Probably it is agricultural fertilizers that make the water foam as it cascades into the lock.

At Boggs Lock and some of the others there were some splendid new shelters to store stop planks (called 'stanking planks' by some). The planks are put into slots in the sides of a narrows, such as at a lock, to block the canal and allow one side to be drained.

We moored on Wednesday below Gailey Lock which is the last one up to the summit level about 350 feet above sea level. Here is a view of the lock and the roundhouse to the left. This used to have a canal shop where we bought some little pictures now on the wall in Leo.

The A5 crosses the canal at Gailey and this photo taken across the busy road shows the delightful lock cottage.

Yesterday (Thursday) we came up Gailey Lock and past the chemical works at Calf Heath. The rather dirty sign shows this is a place to get away from as quickly as our 3 mph allows us and not to moor. This is where a huge rail interchange covering 700 acres is scheduled to be built immediately to the east of the canal.

At Hatherton the canal passes a junction with another canal - the Lichfield and Hatherton - which might one day link to the Birmingham Canal Network. For the moment the branch shown here goes up one lock to provide moorings and there is also a marina. The junction is a little confusing and we have seen boaters enquiring which is the right way. You have to bear right under a bridge to continue towards Wolverhampton.

Here's the bridge in question with a discreet message confirming we are going the right way.

 

Thursday night we spent at Coven Heath close to Wolverhampton and having got to that point we'll leave you guessing which way we've gone at Autherley and Aldersley Junctions both of which we have passed through today. To answer that question you will have to log onto our blog when we next update it in a few days time.

Following the Trent and Mersey

 It's a bit of a damp, grey and breezy Sunday afternoon, so a good opportunity to update our blog. We are now moored at Rugeley in Staffordshire and here is the story of how we got here:

When the sun shines the canal scenery looks wonderful. Here we are setting off on Tuesday morning heading for Swarkestone Lock. The last two of the wide locks are at Swarkestone and Stenson: the first is 11 feet and Stenson wins the prize at 12 feet 4 inches deep.

Helen has been experimenting this year with some shots looking along the length of the boat. This one is particularly good as we cruise towards the splendidly named Fine George's Bridge. No idea how it got that name. Any offers ?

Above Swarkestone Lock is the junction with the Derby Canal. We had seen the other end of this canal at Sandiacre on the Erewash Canal (see our earlier blog). Sadly the bit in between those junctions is not navigable. Indeed the section from Swarkestone into Derby is a cycleway that we cycled last year. In the picture above the Derby Canal goes left of the white house and the Trent and Mersey goes right (where we have come from).

The Trent and Mersey runs for 92 miles from Shardlow to Preston Brook near Runcorn. Actually it also runs beyond Shardlow for a couple of miles to meet the River Trent (the way we have come). A series of mileposts like the one above mark its progress. The mileposts were taken away during World War II and were replaced in the 1970s.

After Stenson Lock the number of broadbeam boats declines especially after Mercia Marina where many of them live. We are now entering the preserve of the narrowboat! Coming through Willington we spotted this house across the fields. It seems to have an astronomical telescope inserted in its roof.

Approaching Burton on Trent the canal comes alongside the busy A38 for the first time. The two then separate briefly while the canal crosses an aqueduct over the River Dove and alongside is the old road bridge over the Dove shown here. There was plenty of water in the Dove: not surprising given the rain we've had lately.

Just before Burton we reached Dallow Lane Lock which is the first narrow lock on the Trent and Mersey, seen here underneath a road bridge. Not only is this one narrow (one narrowboat at a time) it is also not very deep at just 3 feet 6 inches.

We cruised straight through Burton on Wednesday having sampled its delights (brewery tours!) before. After mooring overnight at Branston (of pickle fame), we reached Tattenhill lock. It is a lovely spot with a B&B in the old lock house.

Canal bridges are numbered which makes it easier to work out where you are. This bridge at Wychnor is now number 42 but, as you can see, it used to be number 46. Probably some old farm swing bridges have disappeared. Modern bridges for new roads tend to be numbered as 42a, 42b and so on.

Wychnor Lock took us up to the same level as the River Trent. The canal crosses the river on the level and travels up the Trent for a few hundred yards. This means if the river is very full and fast flowing then canal boats are advised not to travel. Fortunately for us the river level boards were on green so no problem though it was flowing pretty fast. In the picture we are just coming up to the river section. The floating barrier is to stop boats turning left and going over the weir. You might also notice that it was pouring with rain!

Here is the view taken looking back to the River Trent from the mooring just below Alrewas Lock. You can see the Trent coming in from the left under the pedestrian walkway. Alrewas Lock took us up a few feet off the River and to the pretty stretch of moorings which serve the village.

Alrewas is a popular stop for boats but we found a mooring after another narrowboat kindly moved back a little to let us in. We had a walk round on Thursday evening over the river meadows and through the village which has 3 pubs, a Co-op, a fish and chip shop and an excellent butcher. This message on a house by the canal sums up our life. It comes of course from the Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

We had booked online to go the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas on Friday. Though it is free (donations welcome), you have to book at the moment. The weather forecast for Friday was awful but we went anyway and enjoyed the day. We visited the restaurant for lunch and again for tea and cake to get out of the rain. We last went to the Memorial Arboretum in 2014 and it has developed a lot since then with more trees and more monuments. The monument in the picture is 'Shot at Dawn' for those in the First World War executed for breaking military rules. They have now been pardoned. Each stake represents one victim. We were surprised by how many were labelled "Age Unknown" and it is thought that some were 15 or 16 and had said they were 18. Very moving.

There is a lovely wood carving in the chapel, called 'the Storyteller'. The children all sit with rapt attention listening to the story.

But round the corner one little boy is not listening and he leans over looking at a snail.

This monument is to remember the evacuees during the war. The girl at this end is holding her teddy bear.

This statue recognises the role of horses in war. It has a fluidity of motion that we were really taken with.

Here in a monument designed by a 13 year old, we see a handshake between an English and a German soldier during the Christmas truce when they played football between the trenches in 1914. The encircling framework represents a football. You can tell which is the English and which the German hand by the buttons on their cuffs.

This just shows that the Memorial Arboretum is bang up to date. We really enjoyed our day there and would recommend it.

Back to the canal on Saturday with 8 locks to climb as we came through Fradley. The picture is a bridge at the entrance to Bagnall Lock as we came out of Alrewas. It shows how little clearance there is between the boat and the bridge and how some boats have chipped away at the edges.

And this is the view behind us as we came into Keeper's Lock. You can just see the previous lock below the arch. You may be wondering about the folk operating the bottom gates for us. There were plenty of volunteers on the Fradley Locks helping boaters through, including a party of trainee lock volunteers. Unusually, Helen had a ride on the boat most of the way through the locks.

This is the classic Fradley view of the Swan, a pub opposite to the junction where the Coventry Canal leaves the Trent and Mersey to go south. You can see the signpost behind the blue boat.

Here is another Helen 'down the side of the boat' picture as we crossed with another boat to enter Shadehouse Lock, the top one of the Fradley flight of 5 locks.

On Saturday evening we moored near Handsacre and went for a walk into the village and back a different route. It was a bit of an unsatisfactory walk as the footpath we were following went under a railway through an underpass which was flooded to a depth well over our boots. So we had to retrace our steps and follow a different route which turned out to cross the future HS2 route. Plenty of devastation and tree felling, some newly planted tiny trees and the odd house, like this one, deserted and probably scheduled for demolition.

Today (Sunday) we left Handsacre and came through Armitage Tunnel shown here. This very narrow stretch for 150 yards used to be tunnel but subsidence caused by mining round here meant the roof became too low for boats so it was opened out. You do still have to be careful in case you meet a boat coming the other way as it is only just big enough for one boat at a time.

It has been a day for jobs - do the washing, fill the boat with water and go shopping at Rugeley. We were disappointed to find that the excellent hardware shop at Rugeley has closed. Fortunately Wilco's met our needs - we now have new battery LED lights in our wardrobes. Coming through the town you pass the back gardens of houses. This one had some strange mannequins facing the boaters,depicting sheep, bees and ladybirds we think.

And here, to bring you right up to date, is our current mooring just on the edge of Rugeley with the washing under cover. Heavy rain is forecast so we've decided to stop here. We walked a little way up the canal to where it crosses the River Trent on an aqueduct. The Trent was coming under the canal really fast but there were a couple of people getting dressed after a wild water swim - they said they had stayed a calm bit by the side. We're glad we don't have to take Leo on it this time!

Probably tomorrow we shall come to the end of our travels up the Trent and Mersey as we turn left at Great Haywood onto the Staffs and Worcester Canal. Let's hope the weather improves so we can get some good sunny pictures.

A Silver Propellor Point and another excursion on the Fast Flowing Trent

We've now been all the way up the Erewash to Langley Mill to claim our silver propellor point and are making our way west on the Trent and Mersey.  To bring you up to date we need to go back to Sandiacre where we were waiting for our friend Steve last Thursday.

Here we can see two lockies sitting down on the job! Left is Steve helping us up 6 of the heavy and stiff locks on the Erewash. On the right is Helen. This is at Hallam Fields Lock. We had lunch after 3 locks and then carried on to moor close to the centre of Ilkeston. Steve brought scones, jam and clotted cream and Helen had also bought jam and clotted cream made scones onboard that morning. So we have been over-indulging on scones for the last few days.

Having stuffed ourselves on scones, cream and jam we thought we ought to walk some of it off and so went for a walk up the other side of the Erewash valley where we came across the disused Nottingham Canal shown here. The Erewash and the Nottingham Canals ran on either side of the valley and met at Langley Mill.

Having said goodbye to Steve on Thursday evening we thought on Friday we ought to have a look at Ilkeston before setting off to the end of the canal. Much of the centre is pedestrianised and we admired the town hall which sits in a square opposite the church. Crowds filled the square (socially distanced) and we were told that a well loved 49 year old lady was being buried that day.

Without anyone to help we pressed on up the last 5 locks to Langley Mill. The little brick building in the centre of the picture is the toll house for the Nottingham Canal and the cruiser on the right is at the entrance to it where there is a short arm now used for moorings. Getting here gives us another Silver Propellor point. The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) introduced this scheme to encourage boaters to visit waterways that see few visitors. Score 20 points and you gain an award. We are now up to 16.

Beyond our mooring at Langley Mill there is a large basin full of private moorings and beyond that the Cromford Canal used to go to Cromford in the Derbyshire Peaks. The picture shows the first section and there are proposals to take the canal on from here, including the crossing of the major road - the A610.

We had a good walk following the remains of the Cromford Canal and on up the valley of the Erewash. A nature reserve had hosts of cowslips shown here.

From Langley Mill, which is close to several shops including Lidl and Asda, the only way was back the way we'd come. So on Saturday we set off down 8 locks to moor on playing fields to the south of Ilkeston. These lovely tree roots had crept out well into the canal.

There are often bridges below the locks on the Erewash. This picture is taken as we came out of Stanton Lock. For reasons that we don't understand if you come out of the right hand lock gate the boat will not clear the arch of the bridge on the side away from the towpath so we opened the other gate. In times gone by a motor and butty would commonly drive into a lock side by side. That manoeuvre wouldn't work here.  Very strange. Yes, you can get two narrowboats into the locks but they have to enter one by one.

Coming through Sandiacre the canal passes two old lace mills which still have their chimneys.

We moored on Sunday back above Trent Lock at the southern end of the Erewash Canal. Rather late in the afternoon we decided to go for a walk and followed the towpath along the River Trent to Sawley and then took a footpath across farmland to come back. Dark grey clouds had been threatening for some time and, as we left Sawley, the rain started. After sheltering for a while under a railway bridge it slacked off and we carried on a short way to a farm where the heavens really opened. A handy group of barns gave us shelter for nearly half an hour while the rain drummed down as shown in this picture taken from the doorway.

We sheltered in the left hand barn. You can see the rain pouring off the roof. Fortunately the rain stopped and we managed to get back to Leo relatively dry.

On Monday 17 May we set off down Trent Lock and onto to the River Trent. Ratcliffe Power Station seen ahead is on the River Soar which joins the Trent just downstream. With the heavy rain showers that we've had lately we were concerned that the river might be flowing rather fast. The water level marker here was only just on green but meant we were safe to proceed.

Turning right onto the Trent against the flow, Leo managed quite well and we pressed on upstream. The noise of wing beats behind us made us turn round to watch these three swans fly close overhead.

After a mile pushing against the current the railway bridge at Sawley came into view and just beyond on the left side are Sawley Locks. The right hand lock was in use and Helen worked us through. Not too hard this one: it is electric. Above the lock is a long cut with plenty of moored boats and Sawley Marina.

At the end of Sawley Cut is a flood lock. Normally this is wide open and you just cruise through. It had been open the previous evening when we walked to Sawley but today (probably because the river is higher after the previous evenings deluge) it was closed and we had to operate it like an ordinary lock. Above the flood lock is another level marker shown in the photo. As you can see the level was now orange which means 'proceed with caution'. Red would have meant 'stay where you are'. So we carried on up the river.

After keeping left to avoid the top of Sawley Weir we went under the M1 bridge.

This gives a good idea of the size of the Trent here. It is wide and fast flowing. Soon after this pipe bridge there is a cross roads of waterways with the Trent coming in from the left, the River Derwent from the right and straight on is the safe refuge of the Trent and Mersey Canal.

As we headed for the canal, the strong flows from the Trent and Derwent pushed the boat first right and then left but soon we were off the fast flowing river onto a short cut leading to the canal and its first lock.

Having come up Derwent Mouth Lock we soon came into the village of Shardlow. Another really heavy shower caught us here so we moored for a coffee break. When the sky cleared a bit, we went up Shardlow lock with the wisteria on the pretty lock cottage in full bloom and carried on to moor above the next lock at Aston on Trent.

A short and unusually dry walk led us into Aston village which we have not visited before. It has some fine old buildings and a wonderful village shop which sells everything you might need including plants.

We walked a more circuitous route back to Leo passing Weston Grange shown here. We've often seen this from the canal but being on foot, we had more time to stand and compose the photo properly.

Today we've come up another 3 of the very large Trent and Mersey Locks and are now moored above Stenson Lock which is twelve foot four inches deep and the last of the wide (14 foot) locks on this canal. From here on we are in the realm only of narrowboats. But more about that next time.