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.