Stone

Weather was a bit grey this morning as left our last night mooring a stretch of  nice wide straight canal ahead before we  meet our first set of locks for the day. 

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A lot of these locks are quite deep all about 10 ft deep and heavy lock gates , so Denise tells me :-)  

we then reach the town of Stone which advertise there selves as a canal town , and there are a lot of wharfs and boat building yards along the canal, the town has  its fair share of pubs, eating places and all of the shops one would need. 

We did have a shandy in the " Star Inn" which apparently dates from the 14th C and is mentioned in The    Guinness    book of Records as none of its rooms are on the same level.

Another amusing story is when they were celebrating the opening of the lock by the Star inn they fired a cannon in celebration and  destroyed the lock ..........

A statue "Christina" by bridge 94

Stone town centre 

                                  

A bit of canal side art

By the Star inn

 

By the way the cats have well settled in and are no bother at all, sleeping and eating day and night 

A good start to the day

Weather  today is dry but cloudy and grey, as we were moored not far from the Canal and river trust amenities we emptied our waste tank and filled up with water, it was doing the latter that Denise had an accident, she was pulling the hosepipe of the water stand post and slipped and the hit her eye on the post.Luckily it wasn't that deep so she put a plaster on it, and the we set off down the T&M .

we had five locks straight away and all of these locks were deep about 10 ft deep, and then the canal goes through the Heart of the city  passing potteries names that most households know, like Spode but Wedgwood surprisingly is out of town it was relocated in 1940 to just outside of the village Barlston.

                                           

    

Before reaching Barlston we past well manicured gardens and open spaces where factories once use to stand, we moor up at Barlston  and take a wander mainly to find apostrophe box which we did, then back to the boat where the sun makes an appearance. 

Wedgwood factory 

See you tomorrow .

Back to the Trent and Mersey

Got up this morning to a gorgeous sunny morning, the mist coming off the canal in this crisp morning.

Not much to write about today as all we are doing is retracing our steps back to the T&M canal, a few lift bridges and locks to contend with before we moor up for the night at Etruria industrial museum, we pay another visit to Tescos for more supplies before settling down for the night .

    

    

                                                                       

 Speak to you tomorrow, 

     

Having a leak in Leek

After a good night it he Holybush inn last night which we can recommend as a friendly pub, we awoke to a beautiful sunny morning, had some breakfast and then left our mooring and into a set of three locks before we do a sharp left and up the lock free arm of the canal up to Leek.

The Leek canal going over the Froghall canal.

Denise. Going over the aqueduct .

This canal is shallow in parts but is a very pretty with bits of forest, views of distant hills and well manicured gardens definitely worth the trip. 

                                                                    

We the go through Leek tunnel which is a 130 yds long  and the use the winding hole to turn around, because boats over 45 ft can't continue any further, though there not many yards left of the canal to it comes to an erupt end.

We walked the last few yards with the view to go to Morrisons supermarket, but as it was a fair distance we turned around and got back on the boat and then retraced our trip I back down the Leek arm.

We headed to Plant Bridge where we took on water, we were going to moor here on the visitors mooring but unable to as it was taken up with Canal Trust boats. So onward we carry on till we moor by the village of Stanley.

A view from the kitchen sink

A wet night

It did rain last night but this morning it has stopped, we toyed with the idea of finding a winding hole to turn the boat around and then head back up to Froghall , but the the heavens opened again so we decided to carry on and retrace our tracks back to the junction and to turn to Leek.

We completed four locks and also visited a shop for bread and milk before morning up outside of the Holybush pub in the village of Denford, again the heavens open so we decided to stay her for the night.

We gave the boat a good clean from bow to stern and then put on dinner before changing and of for a quick half.

A grey day

Today we woke to a grey day, but its not raining which is a bonus, though it poured down in the night, straight away we are into a lock. We head to Stockton Locks a set of five that take us to the summit 484ft above sea level. 

This canal has changed drastically from the first leg into a beautiful canal with spectacular views around each bend.We pass the facilities at Park Lane Bridge because one was not able to moor with all the CRT barges taking up the visitor moorings while they carry out work at this location. The canal junction now splits into two arm the Leek and Froghall we head towards Froghall and while using the locks we were joined by a bunch of school children and their teacher who explained the principals of lock operation to them.

Onwards to Cheddleton which has  a Flint Mill  and the Red Lion pub which we were going to moor at but there was no mooring to be had so we decided to go to the next pub.

At Oak Meadow ford Lock the river Churnet merges with the canal, but as the water level hadn't reached red we carry on, and the heavens open. At Cosnall Forge we moor up opposite the Black Lion , where the steam railway runs right  pass. We were tying our mooring ropes when  a man from the pub told us that where we were mooring was prone to be flooded and that this area has had a flood warning, he said that we could moor up a bit further down stream, but I decided that we would turn around are trace our steps to the lock that was after where the river joined so that's what we did.

We then moored up in the middle of nowhere but away from the river and took off our soaking wet clothes, had a nice warm shower and a hot dinner. So no beer tonight again:( 

A trip up another canal

Woke this morning to a grey old morning , but not raining, most of it came down last night it was lashing down, any way we left our mooring and then stopped for a diesel refill, our first since Upton on severn, and a lot cheaper than Upton. We then carried on , past remnants of old potteries works, one did remain and that is Middleport Potteries, but  a lot have been sadly closed.

                                                           

                                                                                               

We then took a left turn up the Caldon Canal  http://www.churnet.co.uk/caldoncanal.php

and moored by the Etruria Industrial Museum we didn't pay this a visit but will on our return, also opposite James Brindley statue. 

                                     

                                               Statue of James Brindley 

We then took a ten min walk to Tescos as we did have any food left in the cupboard. We then returned and set off again up the Caldon, which was built as an outlet for limestone quarries near Froghall, and encountered a double flight lock staircase - the only one in North Staffordshire, the canal around the start is a bit dismal, with remnants of old industry still scaring the surrounding land but soon opens into parkland and the countryside . 

On the way we encounter a lift bridge that is operated by electric, and carry on around a twist canal which is narrow in parts. We then moored up just below Engine lock so called because a huge .beam engine use to be housed nearby to pump water from mine workings?

                                          

Again another night in tonight as not moored by a pub :-(

See yaaa