Caldon Cruise: Day 9

Yet another bright sunny morning.  We were away about 9am, and made our way through Milton and towards Stoke-on-Trent.  Many of the bridges are on bends, making them tricky to approach and impossible to see if anything is coming.  This is heading for Bridge 14.

I went and pressed the buttons at Ivy House Lift Bridge, holding up three cars and a pick-up truck in the process.  We waved at a group of school children out for a walk in Hanley Park.  When we got to Planet Lock, Adrian set the lock and then went to the shop across the road to see if he could buy a bottle of milk.  However, the only option they had was four pints of full fat — so he left it.  Meanwhile, a cyclist had offered to close the gate while I went and did the paddles, but then found there was such a big collection of branches in the water he couldn’t actually get the gate closed.  I fished them out with the boat hook, by which time Adrian was bc, empty handed.  The final locks on the canal were the Bedford Street staircase pair.

At the junction, we rejoined the Trent and Mersey, and headed north.  At the Steelite factory, they normally seem to be chucking away loads of rejects when we pass.  Today, all was quiet, even the car park — so maybe they don’t work on a Friday.  Anyway, the skip was already full.

We moored up at Westport Lake, on our own.  After lunch, we walked to the next bridge, crossed it, and went up the hill to the main road, where there’s an Aldi, which had semi-skimmed in reasonable sizes.  There’s also a Screwfix up there and a variety of other shops.  It’s only a short walk, so well worth knowing about.  Later we walked round the lake again, and found ourselves in front of the ice cream van, so it would have been rude not to.

8 miles, 3 locks.  (41 miles, 34 locks)

Heading north: Day 10

We were up early this morning, as we had an appointment.  Tim Tyler, who’s building the shell of our new boat, Kingley Vale, had contacted us to say they’d be starting to paint it with primer this afternoon, so if we wanted to see it in bare metal, this morning would be the day to do it.  So it was about 6.30 when I got the boat ready to set off.  It was very cold and frosty, there was mist rising off the water, and the sun was showing promise.

Adrian had got up a bit after me, but came out to help with Trentham Lock, which was just round the corner.  It’s a pretty deep one.

We travelled through Hem Heath as dogs were taken for morning walks, joggers were out, and people were going to work.  Bridge 108, near the football stadium, has seen better days.

Soon the incinerator comes into view.  It’s a familiar sight not only from the canal, but from the A500 through Stoke.

Some things always need their photo taking, and the sign of eclectic offerings at Dolphin boat yard is one of them

Adrian said he’d work Stoke Locks, on the basis it was early, they’d probably all have drained empty so would be ready for us, and there would be no-one else around.  The first one was empty, but all the others weren’t, and a boat was coming down the middle one.  The second lock is surrounded by railways.

Below the penultimate lock is the chimney of the Etruscan Bone Mill.

The top lock is by far the deepest.

We carried on past lots of new warehouse buildings on the site of the old steel works, and past Middleport Pottery.  We moored up at Westport Lake, our boating for the day done by 10.15!  Tim Tyler came and picked us up from the car park, and took us back to his workshop, where we could have a good look at the new shell.  It made us both a bit emotional!  It looks really good, with lots of details, and we really like our combination of portholes and side doors.  There’s much more on the visit in the latest post over on the Kingley Vale blog.

We decided to walk back to the boat, and Tim showed us a short cut for the first part of the trip, and then we went under the A500 and over the railway line.  This afternoon we’ve been catching up with various things, and enjoying the sunshine.

7 miles, 6 locks.  (115 miles, 60 locks)

Northern Exposure: Day 8

It was cool and damp when we set off this morning at 8am.  Trentham Lock is just around the corner, then there’s a suburban stretch through Hem Heath, then past distribution centres, and the post industrial outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent.  There are five locks in the Stoke flight, all of them quite deep.  The second one is approached from under the railway line.

Towards the top, there’s the old bone mill works, which has a little arm off the canal.

At the top of the flight we stopped at Capital Gas to change a gas bottle that ran out a week ago.  Their office has moved to the other side of the site since we last stopped here several years ago, and we had a job to get anyone to hear the bell.  But eventually we were served, and the gas is still a very good price.  Then we moved on the short distance to Middleport Pottery, where we moored up outside.  On the wall approaching the pottery, there are some very good murals.

We had online tickets for the Pottery Heritage Trail, which saved us a few pounds, and they had the steam engine running — making clouds of steam out the front, and regular toots on the whistle (they were selling toots for a £1 donation).

We had lunch of Staffordshire oat cakes in the cafe, then pushed over to the towpath side of the canal so Adrian could go to a nearby shop for some milk.  We carried on another mile or so to Westport Lake, where we’ve moored on the far end of the moorings.  There are only a couple of other boats here, but there are lots of walkers and the playground and the cafe look busy.

7 miles, 6 locks.  (116 miles, 60 locks)

North West Passage: Day 13

We set off at about 8am in some nice sunshine. Immediately after the first bridge is a rather unusual obstruction in the canal, which looks a bit like a mini roundabout. It used to be the pivot of a swing bridge.

At Stockton Brook locks, the top four were full while the bottom one was empty. With so many in our favour, we got down them in no time. An old railway bridge crosses the canal between a couple of the locks, and the rails are still in place, albeit overgrown.

Above the bottom lock is the old Victorian pumping station, which last time we were here Adrian thought would convert into a lovely house. It's so huge, it would make several lovely houses.

As we got back into Stoke-on-Trent, some of the new housing is really quite attractive. I like the way the roof lines are reminiscent of factories.

We came down the Bedford Street staircase locks, and then at Etruria Junction rejoined the Trent and Mersey Canal, heading north. We stopped very shortly afterwards to get a new gas bottle. There's a place on the towpath side with a gate in the fence where they sell a 13kg bottle for £21 rather than the usual £28. Next stop was Middleport Pottery, where we moored up on their offside moorings.

It was 12.30 (we'd made much better progress than we'd been expecting) so went first to the cafe for Staffordshire oatcakes and chips. The factory tour was fully booked so we couldn't do that, but we paid £4 each for entry to the heritage areas, which includes the bottle kiln, the mould store, and the steam engine. It's great just being able to wander round the quaint little alleyways.

There's an exhibition on at the moment of things made in BBC2's Great Pottery Throwdown. It's in the room where the series is filmed.

We made a visit to the Burleigh factory shop on site, and bought a little jug for the boat. It's a second so was a bit cheaper, but there's not much wrong with it that we can see.

We carried on to Westport Lake. There were only a couple of boats here, so we picked a spot and moored up. I got out the bucket and brush, and washed the side of the boat to get off all the grass that was strimmed up it yesterday. It was quite hard work, not least because the towpath is so high here which makes the boat very low down. It's now trying to rain.

10 miles, 9 locks. (154 miles, 94 locks)