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.

Autumn Cruise: Day 19

For some reason we were up and about early this morning, and set off at 7.45.  The first few locks were against us, and Marsh Lock at Swindon was looked over by a flowerpot fisherman at a nearby house.

The Botterham Locks are a staircase pair, and look very imposing.

Bumblehole lock comes next, followed by The Bratch.  These are three locks very close together — but without being a staircase.  The pounds in between are just four or five feet long, but actually extend off to the side.  Going up, you have to start filling the lock you’re in before you start emptying the lock above; the little tiny pound gets very rough.  There was a volunteer lock keeper on duty, who was rather bossy and not very friendly — maybe he was annoyed about being extracted from his turret office in the rain, which had not long started.

After three more locks we moored up at Wightwick so we could go the the National Trust property, Wightwick Manor.  By now the rain had cleared and the sun was out, so as we walked up the path I made sure I took photos of the outside in case such conditions didn’t last.

We went to the cafe first for lunch, then had a look round this very lovely house, decorated by William Morris.  We last came here some ten years ago, and it seems a lot more of the house is open these days.  It even has a Turkish Bath.

While we were in the house, it began to rain and by the time we had finished looking around it was lashing it down.  As it wasn’t the weather for looking round the gardens, we headed back to the boat, getting soaked on the way.  We made a cup of tea, then saw from the rainfall radar that a break in the weather was on its way.  With the mountain of the Wolverhampton 21 in line for tomorrow, we wanted to be up the last locks on the Staffs and Worcs, so when the rain had pretty much stopped we set off.  We knew there was a boat in front of us, because people we’d seen yesterday had been sheltering under the bridge when we returned from Wightwick Manor.  As we were leaving Wightwick Lock a boat came round the corner, so we expected the next lock to be in our favour; inexplicably it wasn’t.

At Compton Lock, our final lock on this canal, we suddenly came across a queue.  The boat from earlier was going up in the lock, and a hire boat was waiting.  Adrian went to help them both, then it was our turn.  However, I noticed that the bottom gates were’t shut properly, so we tried to clear whatever it was with a burst of water from the prop.  They closed more, so we tried going up but it was clear that the lock would never make a level.  We emptied the lock again, and had a poke about on the cill with the boat pole.  Again there was a slight improvement so we tied again — but again we got six inches from a level but no more.  There was as much water going out as coming in.  We emptied the lock again, reversed out, and called CRT.  After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, because the local office closes at 4pm on a Friday, and our call was at 4.01, the duty manager phoned back and said a team would come out to us.  After a couple of hours it was agreed they’d be here in the morning.

8 miles, 14 locks.  (194 miles, 191 locks)