As we had our barbecue out on the towpath last night we spoke to loads of locals out for walks — and it turned out that some fellow Braidbar owners were moored a bit further along. Chris and Simon from Jolly Good said hello on their way to the Plume of Feathers for dinner, and on the way back came in for drinks. We had a lovely time exchanging boating stories and finding out about their big move from one end of the country to the other. This morning we got underway a bit before 8. Trentham Lock was just around the corner, and it’s a deep one.
There’s then quite a long run through Hem Heath, past the old colliery site where there are houses being built, and into Stoke. The incinerator chimney can be seen from a long way off, then a bit closer into town there’s a lot of building work going on.
A boat was just about to come down the bottom lock; the next one has the railway line crossing right behind, but no train came by at a convenient moment.
The next lock has a mural as part of CRT’s campaign against plastics. It’s apparently from designs by students at Stoke On Trent college.
A boat was coming out of the penultimate lock, which is round a corner so impossible to see. It’s right by the old Etruria bone works.
A boat was also coming down the top lock, and the woman steering stuck rigidly to the left hand side, while not indicating anything to Adrian, who was steering our boat. As I walked past to the next lock, I asked her if she was going to stay on the wrong side, she said she yes, because it’s easier. Anyway, the top lock is a deep one, and another boat was waiting to come down. We made a brief pause to visit the rubbish bins. The site of the Shenton steel works has been a barren wasteland for years, but now it’s covered in several huge warehouses, which also look pretty barren to be honest.
We made a stop at Middleport Pottery, as we always seem to when we come this way, where we tied up in front of Dane.
We had a look round the shop and other bits that are free — there’s currently a free exhibition in the bottle kiln of photos of the remaining 47 kilns in Stoke. Then we had lunch in the cafe, which was the real reason we’d stopped, because we know they do nice Staffordshire oat cakes.
We had a 3pm booking for Harecastle Tunnel, and decided to head up there even though we were very early. A few minutes before arriving, I had a call from the tunnel keeper, checking we were on schedule for our booking. When I told him we were close, he realised he could see us — and said that there was a chance we’d be able to go straight through, because we had enough time to get to the other side before the boat booked to come south at 2pm. So we had a very quick safety briefing, as we were in at just after 1.15.
The doors clanged shut behind us and the fans started up, but it was a little while before the mist appeared for a few seconds. We made it unscathed to the other end in a little over 35 minutes.
It had been pretty chilly in the tunnel, but outside it was another roasting day. Adrian worked the locks down of the summit. At the first pair, both were empty, but a boat was coming up one of the second pair. There were volunteers painting bits of the lock by the Red Bull pub, and the next one was full. We swapped with a boat at the fifth lock, and then there were some funny goings on at the bottom Red Bull lock. A boat had been coming up, but they couldn’t get the lock to make a level. So they let the water out, reversed out, and tried the other of the pair, which worked fine. We carried on round the corner and moored on the rings by the church at Church Lawton. We’re using a ring at the bow anyway, but they must be oddly spaced as there wasn’t one for the stern so we’ve had to use a piling hook in the piling down at water level. When it’s cooler later, we might walk up and have a look at the church.
So while everything took ages yesterday, today we’ve made much better progress than expected.
13 miles, 12 locks. (122 miles, 66 locks)
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