Cheshire, eventually: Day 1

After a pause of a couple of days we’re moving again.  Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be heading for Cheshire — but we’re not going straight there!  The forecast was for a very hot day so we thought we’d get going in good time, and set off at 8.15.

There are five locks between Penkridge and the summit pound of the Staffs and Worcs, and they’re all fairly deep.

As we came up the penultimate lock, Brick Kiln, a boat moored above set off — so there was a bit of a wait at Gailey Lock.  But there were volunteer lock keepers on duty to do some of the work.  That boat, a Norbury Junction hire boat, stopped at the water point, as did we once we were up.  We got another load of washing going, and Adrian went to the shop in the round house for ice creams.  We’d been told the tap had low pressure, but it seemed pretty good to us and the tank was soon full.  The next section takes you through the chemical works with lots of signs about not mooring, and strange pipes going over the canal.

There are lots of tight turns, and Hatherton Junction there’s a sharp right under the white bridge.

Shortly afterwards we caught up with a disabled trip boat, but they quickly let us pass.  I think a new steerer was under instrauction.  Then we passed a kids canoe centre, with lots of children in boats.  They all got to the side, and as we passed each boat they all called out aye aye captain!  The first boat was best because get even stood up and saluted.

As we passed under the M54 we moved from Staffordshire to the West Midlands.  There are some big new warehouses there, where someone obviously thought they needed a bit of decoration so has made a design on each corner.

We followed the Norbury hire boat through the narrows of the Pendeford Rockin’.  Not only in the channel narrow here, as the stone was so tough to dig through, the towpath is almost at roof height.

Once the canal widens out again, there were some islands of reeds floating about.  One of them had a heron standing on it, who stayed there as we went past.

The Norbury boat unsurprisingly turned onto the Shroppie at Autherley Junction, although it thought it was quite brave of them to do so without checking whether there was a boat in the lock that’s right there at the bridge.  We carried on straight.

We had thought about stopping at Autherley Junction, but as we stopped here last month we decided to carry on a bit.  Another disabled trip boat was setting off from Oxley Marine without looking; I was just about to give the steerer a beep when he looked round and stopped the boat heading for us.  Last time we were this way we went up the Wolverhampton 21 at Aldersley Junction, but this time we carried straight on here too.

Just before Compton Lock is an impressive former railway bridge, which now seems to carry a footpath.

We wanted to moor above the lock, and there were already two boat there so we thought we were out of luck.  But we found that the vast majority of the boat would fit on the mooring, with just a small overhang onto the lock landing which is also very long.  The trip boat has been down and had no problem stopping there, and the canal doesn’t exactly seem busy.

There’s a nice bit of grass between us and the towpath, so we’re thinking we might get the barbecue out this evening.  As a result, I popped down to the shop in Compton to get some things more suitable for barbecuing that what we have in the fridge.

12 miles, 5 locks.

Day trip to Cheshire

With the car close at hand, this morning we went to buy engine oil from the shop in Penkridge, and then did a few days shopping at the big Co-op. Then we headed up the M6 to Chester to take my dad out for lunch.

In the afternoon we headed to Nantwich to leave the car at a new place provided by some friends, and had a good catch up with them at the same time. Then we got the train back. Our train from Crewe was painted to mark the Eurovision Song Contest when it was in Liverpool in 2023. 

Tomorrow we start moving again. 

Painting and trains

 I had a late night last night, because I'd been invited to make a guest appearance back on Radio 2, asking OJ Borg three questions about canals in his Midnight Mastermind feature.  I used to regularly read the news in his show, and he didn't know in advance that it was going to be me asking the questions.  The format is that someone sets a topic and he has the length of one song to do some quick research.  Fortunately my mobil signal is excellent here, so it all worked well.  But it was at half past midnight, a time I haven't seen since leaving work!

This morning, we weren't as slow to get up and about as I thought we might be, particularly as we weren't going anywhere (not by boat anyway).  After breakfast we took some rubbish and recycling down to the CRT bins, and then walked into Penkridge.  There's a large country and agricultural store there, which turned out to be a real Aladdin's cave of stuff.  We came away with a little tin of Hammerite paint and a paint brush, and also noted the very good price for engine oil.  Then we went across the road to Jasper's the bakers, for some treats.  Back at the boat I started work on the metal frame over the engine, which holds the engine boards, giving it all a good wire brushing to get all the loose bits off.  The removable cross brace pieces were probably the worst bits.

I got one coat of paint on before lunch.  Then we walked down to the railway station as Adrian was catching a train.  The route took us past the very impressive church.

By the time I'd walked back to the boat, Adrian was in Stafford and changing to a train to Stoke.  He then walked up to where the car has been staying, as he's going to a leaving dinner in Warrington for a former colleague.  He'll be back later.  I got another coat of paint on the metal work; this paint dries in 2 to 4 hours anyway, and in today's heat it was much closer to the lower end of that.  It all looks a lot better.

North again: Day 21

Really sunny and warm from first thing.  We got the washing machine going at 8.30 and set off as soon as the wash part of the cycle had finished.  It really was a glorious morning, and just through the first bridge there was a bush of very bright pink wild roses.

We went through Acton Trussel, and the church is slightly out on its own across the fields.

All the locks today needed turning.  At the second one, Park Gate Lock, Adrian opened half a paddle and then popped to the chandlery next door to get some oil filters; he’d already phoned to check they had some, as the website suggested they were out of stock.  Once the boat was high enough, I went and opened the other paddle, and then a boat arrived to go down.  Before the next lock, we went under the M6.

We now had a boat in front of us, and by Penkridge Lock we had two.  Longford Lock has a bridge with a big arch covering the lock and the towpath; Penkridge Lock has individual bridges.

We wanted to stop at the water point above Penkridge Lock and we also knew that some of the people ahead did too.  But there was a completely different boat there, who then wanted to go into the lock — so we came out, they went in, and we moved over to fill the tank.  The next boat to come up also wanted water, so just sat in the lock until we were ready to leave.  We did one more lock and moored on the five day moorings, in pretty much the same spot we were in last month.

This afternoon, Adrian has given me a haircut, and we’ve walked up to the Co-op mostly to get veg for the stock that’s now simmering away.  It makes use of the roast chicken carcass from yesterday, to make stock for tonight’s risotto.  We’ll be here for a couple of days now, as we have a few errands to run.

Here’s this part of our journey from Crick to Penkridge in animated graphic form.  They (bizarrely) don’t have a narrowboat option!

5 miles, 5 locks.  (133 miles, 85 locks)

Since moving on board: 78 days, 429 miles, 313 locks.

North again: Day 20

Tixall Wide is on lots of people’s lists of favourite moorings, and you can see why.  The views across the water are great, we also had a view on the towpath side, and it’s lovely and quiet.  No-one seemed in a rush to get away this morning, with very few boat movements.  Our modest target for the day meant we were also quite late to get going, in fact it was gone 10 before we pushed off, with one last view of the Tixall Gatehouse, which you can rent for holidays once the current renovations are finished.

It’s only just over five weeks since we came this way, so this time we remembered that Tixall Lock is further round than you expect.  When we got there, there was a boat about to come down.  The cottage has a sign with some distances on it.

Milford Bridge, No 105, is a turnover bridge that takes the towpath from one side to the other.  It doesn’t seem as elegant as the curvy ones on the Macclesfield Canal, but it still has its attractions.

A bit further on we came through a bridge that had a boat moored just beyond it, and a hire boat was coming the other way, but hadn’t yet reached the moored boat.  Instead of just slowing down and steering, he went hard into reverse and of course ended up across the canal.

I just hung about until they’d sorted themselves out, which involved deployment of the pole.  The steerer then hit both the bow and the stern on the towpath as he went through the bridge, after which I saw his daughter (or possibly daughter-in-law) took over the tiller!  Another boat behind them was mooring up, and as we passed said he was stopping for half an hour so he didn’t have to follow them any more.

We carried on in lovely sunshine through Baswich and the outskirts of Stafford.  We followed a boat up Deptmore Lock, then moored just ahead.  There’s a nice view and the M6 isn’t yet too close.

This afternoon we haven’t been entirely idle, because we took everything off the well deck and gave it a clean.  We even removed a length of redundant cabling which goes to the non-working horn — although we’ve left the horn itself there because the front of the boat would look odd without it!  And we’ve been listening to a cuckoo, which must be the third we’ve heard in the past few days.

5 miles, 2 locks.  (128 miles, 80 locks)

North again: Day 19

Another sunny start to the day, and the promised showers haven’t really materialised although it has been pretty windy.  We got a wash load of towels going before we set off.  When we were ready to go, once the rinse part of the cycle had started, I went to get the forward fender and found there was a hole in the towpath right next to it.  When I say I found it, what I mean is that my foot went down it, and I had one very muddy boot.  The canal is very pleasant along thing stretch, with the Trent alongside.  Just after Wolsey Bridge there was a long line of geese; a little further on there was an even longer one, I reckon about 40 of them, many of them the gosling crèche.

When we got to Colwich Lock a boat was just coming out so we could go straight in.  The cottage alongside has a very colourful flower garden.

At long last, the ground paddle has been fixed, so it no longer takes ages to fill.  A boat arrived to come down while we were rising, so we didn’t have to shut the gate either.  In an effort to take photos of different things this time, there’s a nice little row of cottages in Little Haywood.

At Haywood Lock there was a boat going up and one to come down before it was our turn.  And there was a queue at the top, with three more waiting to come down.  As we approached the junction, a boat appeared out of the reeds; it seems he’d just come out of the Staffs and Worcester, so was a bit further over than he might otherwise have been.  Once he was out of the way, we made our turn through the junction bridge.

We continued to Tixall Wide, looking for a mooring.  It was quite busy, but there were a few spaces we thought might be long enough, so I did a complete 360 in the wide to return to one of them.  The edge wasn’t the best — but then a man on the boat ahead, Ziggy, said they were just leaving if we wanted their space.  He also said he was a blog reader, which was nice.  We shuffled along and got tied up.  Since then, all the other spaces have filled up.  At lunchtime we walked back to the Canalside Cafe for oatcakes for lunch, and bought some sausages for dinner from the farm shop.  This afternoon, Adrian has had a call to attend, while I’ve been cleaning my muddy boots.

4 miles, 2 locks.  (123 miles, 78 locks)

North again: Day 18

The moorings at Fradley Junction are nice, even though the access lane to the pub runs alongside, but my goodness things get going early there!  A delivery lorry reversed up to the cafe opposite at about 6.30, and before 7.30 at least four or five boats had gone past.  We were just ready to push over to the water point when another boat stopped there, so we waited for them to fill their tank  and then took their place.  We got the washing machine going and started topping up, but the tap is a really slow one; we eventually got bored with waiting, and Adrian reckoned (not entirely jokingly) that we probably ended up with less water in the tank than we’d started with!  I walked up to set Junction Lock, and found a volunteer lock keeper on duty.  He closed up so I could walk ahead to Middle Lock, past The Swan.

At Middle Lock, a boat which had turned out from the Coventry Canal was going up, and there was one to come down, so there was a little wait before we could come in.

The lock keepers were radioing each other, so Shadehouse Lock was ready for us when we got there.  Then there was the run to Woodend Lock, which needed emptying.

We’re now retracing some miles we did on our original trip north in April, but some things have changed,  through the woods, the rhododendrons are out.

We plodded through Handsacre to Armitage, where I always take pretty much the same picture of the Armitage Shanks factory.

There seemed to be far more toilets and basins on pallets waiting to go on lorries than there were a couple of months ago though.  At the narrow former tunnel, Adrian got off to see if anything was coming and a boat appeared almost straight away.  It was clear after that though and we could go through.  The road bridge over the first part of the cutting has almost made it a tunnel again.

We stopped at the water point at the end of the moorings there to fill the tank; this was a much faster tap, and it didn’t take too long.  Once we set off again we had lunch on the move.  Next stop was Rugeley for shopping.  Adrian went to Morrison’s to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy there, while I went and started the shopping in Tesco.  We needed a complete restock, as both the fridge and freezer were pretty empty.  I made a return trip to stock up on wine, which was well as being discounted had an extra 25 per cent off.  We decided we’d move out of town, and planned to go just to the outskirts, where there are decent moorings.  One of the gardens is mad, with not only all the mannequins at the front, but more on various levels behind.  At least they’re all supporting the Fund Britain’s Waterways campaign.

It was a lovely afternoon though, so we decided to go a little further out into the countryside.  We moored for the night just before Taft Bridge.

9 miles, 4 locks.  (119 miles, 76 locks)