We now have a plan, but it may well change as its changed several times already, its at Canal Plan ac https://canalplan.uk/journey/18783_cp
Nice quiet night last night, no one about, I expected people to be at the club house on a Saturday night especially as its a Bank Holiday.
We said good bye to the couple moored opposite and set off about 10am with the sun trying hard to break through. From here the canal is quite shallow and weedy. The towpath bank is miles and miles of brick wall, I assume to turf has been trimmed back to inspect the top course
I thought the plaque on this bridge a little unusual, I don’t recall seeing a similar one anywhere on the system, if you know of one please let me know.
After I jumped ship to take the above photo Diana plodded on through some thick blanket weed without me, its not the blanket weed that causes the problem but lack of water beneath it.
So I had to wander along to the next bridge, on the way I passed this paddle gear, obviously a drain from the canal, but no locks on it, maybe its dammed off and with a triangular spindle, that wouldn’t stop a pair of Stilsons.
I have photographed this bridge before, but today the light was a little better so I thought I would take another, art, graffiti, how do you decide? Impressive yes.
Another photo I have taken in the past but always with bad lighting is this fisherman, only now you have a CRT stop plank house in bright blue spoiling the shot. I have seen a few of these now, I hate to thing what they cost and I haven actually seen any stop planks in one yet.
This canal, O I haven’t told you the name of it yet is the Daw End Canal was closed for several months for the replacement of this bridge, the original was iron but I don’t think they mad a bad job of a steel replacement, but I bet it doesn't last 200 years.
We passed a large heard of deer unfortunately behind some trees so impossible to get a good photograph, this was the best I could do.
When we reached the Daw End canal at Catshall Junction we turned right to Anglesey Basin on the Wyrley and Essington canal. It wasn’t long before we passed Ogley Junction where the Litchfield canal once joined.
This section of the canal is not that long but before you reach the end there are a couple of old coal shoots on the towpath side. Its a shame they are not being better preserved.
Since I wrote this blog I have been made aware of a video of the coal shoots in action.
We carried on down to the very end and winded, the plan was to return back passed the junction to moor for the night, but we decided to stop down here for the night.
Today’s Journey
8 miles, no locks in 3½ hours
1 comment:
The bridge sign at Brawn’s is a one off. It was donated by a relative of someone who lived next to the bridge and they had three made. One for each side of the bridge and one which was donated to Longwood boat club on the understanding they they fixed the other two to the bridge ! The exposed prick work is a sore point. The local round table have done it as part of the towpath clearance programme. The trouble is that the grass was all that was holding the bricks in place so hundreds have slid into the canal ……
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