All the other boats moored at Cheddleton last night seemed to be from the same boat club, possibly out on an Easter cruise — so we thought we’d better get moving in good time this morning, in case they were all going the same way! We were off at 8.15, with Adrian bringing the boat while I walked ahead and set the two locks.
A couple of locks later, at Oakmeadow Lock, the canal joins the River Churnet. The gauge was well into the green, meaning the levels were normal. This section is lovely, passing through woodlands.
The river section ends at Consall Forge, where the river goes over a weir and the canal turns under a bridge and then goes under the railway and makes a sharp turn. Next is Consall station, with the platform and waiting room are cantilevered out over the canal.
At Flint Mill Lock there’s an indicator of whether you can fit through Froghall Tunnel. It’s pretty clear that we’re a bit too tall, or maybe a bit too wide at handrail height.
One of the bridges on the next section has a distinctive pointed arch, and red stone. It’s called Cherry Eye Bridge, apparently recalling the bloodshot eyes of the ironstone workers round here.
We negotiated all the narrow sections up to Froghall, then turned at the winding hole and reversed to moor up. There was only one other boat here. There’s another gauge on this end of the tunnel.
We knew the Churnet Valley Railway was running trains today, in fact we’d seen one earlier, so we walked down to the station and waited on the road bridge for the train to return.
From the other side of the bridge you can see the station, and we waited while the loco changed ends, by coming down the other track and backing up to the carriages. Today it was a diesel Class 33 called Sophie, which was built in the early 1960s, worked in the southern region, retired in 1992, and has been up here pretty much ever since.
Our walk then took us round to Froghall Basin, where the Willow Cruises trip boat, Lurcher, was in the first lock of the Uttoxeter Canal boarding passengers for a fish and chip lunchtime cruise.
The boat was due to set off at 12, and I was keen to see how he got round the tight bend before the tunnel, and then how much room there was in the tunnel. It was very tricky going round the corner, but once in the tunnel, the view confirmed my suspicion that it’s not so much the height of a boat as the profile. The tunnel definitely bulges inwards at handrail height. This boat was built specially to fit through.
We had a very tasty lunch at Hetty’s Tea Shop, which was busy with customers. We had a turkey, cranberry and stuffing cobb, which came with a Yorkshire pudding, inside the cobb! It was just about warm enough to sit outside.
Tomorrow, we’re booked on a train ride.
5 miles, 5 locks. (17 miles, 17 locks)
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