Scholar Green

We decided to eat at the Toby Carvery last night and as we were unable to moor right outside I went just through bridge 117. After eating we got back to the boat just as it started raining. This morning reminded me why I try to avoid mooring under trees. The drips are like a water torture and the birds roosting above make a right mess on the paintwork/roof.

We were up early and didn’t sleep well with the wind and rain last night. It was dead calm when we went to bed and 5 minutes latter we were bagging about with creaking ropes, a cycle which seemed to continue all night.
We were away by 8am heading for the tunnel in almost sunshine, but I had the mac on in case and a good job I did, about a quarter of a mile from the tunnel the sky’s opened. When we reached the tunnel there was no one waiting so we moored nearest the tunnel mouth. The tunnel keeper came out and said there was a boat in the tunnel going north, which I suspected, then the good news, you can follow through as soon as you are ready, so horn and light checked, safety briefing done and we were off into the darkness. I didn’t see any sign of the boat ahead but there were two waiting to come south as we exited the tunnel, so we must have arrived just in time.
Clear of the tunnel we turned left at Hardings Wood Junction towards the Macclesfield Canal, it doesn’t actually become the Macclesfield Canal until you pass through Hall green lock. After the junction its reasonably straight passed the long term moorings and then a 90° right hander and under the turn overbridge to cross the Trent and Mersey canal  on the aqueduct . We stopped here for a quick cup of tea and decide or next move, I had expected to wait for an hour at the tunnel, not go straight through.Plan for the day formulated we headed off, through Hall Green lock, there use to be two locks here back to back to prevent water flowing from one company to the other, but now there is a single lock with about a foot rise. The rain had stopped but it was still windy as we pushed on to the visitor moorings at Scholar Green, we tried getting in earlier by the long straight piling but there wasn’t enough depth.

Today’s Journey 7½ miles, 1 lock in 3 hours

Stoke on Trent - Festival Park

My word it was warm last night, it was 15°C outside when we got up and it just kept getting warmer. This garden in Milton caught my eye with the owl carved from a tree stump and all the cuddly toys jotted about.

Passing these old buildings on the offside I do wonder how much longer the upper story will last before falling into the canal.

The two old bottle kilns could really do with the growth removing from the brickwork before it starts doing real damage.and cost a lot more to put right. No one seems to remember a stitch in time saves nine, these days, they just hope it hits someone else's budget.

This is probably the best show of Primroses I have seen this year so far.

We stopped just before bridge 9 to visit Lidl but then realised we had stopped two bridges to early. Diana continued to walk to Lidl whilst I moved the boat down. Bridge 9 is a low one, I took down the flagstaff, exhaust and chimney but not the anemometer, which didn’t fit under the bridge and is now in the bottom of the cut.
Following a grumpy wander round Lidl it was time for lunch before setting off. By now a few boats had passed, it was the Litchfield Cruising club flotilla heading home. We caught up with one of them at Planet Lock and helped them down and again at Bedford Road Staircase. As they worked down a 70ft Black Prince hire boat arrived at the bottom, so we helped them up before setting up to go down ourselves. Unfortunately someone looked out of the bow doors of the hire boat as they entered the lock and didn’t close them, so they got a jet of water straight into the lounge. By the time I entered the top chamber another hire boat was coming into the bottom and had to back out again. We had quite a wait for water at the Etruria services as there was a boat ahead of the one we were following waiting to use them. Once we had finally filled with water  it was only a short run to the toby carvery where we are eating tonight.

Today’s Journey

6 miles, 3 locks in 4 hours

Norton in the Moors

Well another wet night and also the wind picked up for a time, but by the time we set off it was  dry and surprisingly warm.
Yesterday evening a short narrowboat arrived to moor behind up but they were able to wind at the very end of the canal, other than that is was very quiet. Today was different, we met 3 boats just before the aqueduct, 6 moored on the aqueduct, a day boat just before Hazlehurst Junction, a CRT work boat full of volunteers planting trees in a bridge hole(trying to pull it just through on ropes) and then two at the services. The services were so busy with 3 getting water and one waiting I had to reverse back through the bridge to let the oncoming boats through. Finally we caught up with a boat at the bottom of the Stockton Brook Flight.
We set off back along the canal passing this broken, fallen tree on the way, it didn’t happen last night it was there when we came down. Loads of room so long as you don’t meet anyone on the bend .

It was all quiet and pleasant, chatting to people working in their canal side gardens, and there are some very nice ones along this canal, things livened up just before bridge 4 where we were passing a row of long term moorings and 3 boats came the other way.

Nice and gently off the aqueduct , under bridge 3 and round the bend, thankfully this is not where

I met the day boat, that was by the 2 day moorings and I want hard aground about a yard out from the side. 
It was the next bridge where I met the CRT boat. Talk about blanking people out, the only one who spoke was the steerer. They have planted trees all the way along this stretch of canal and they are all looking healthy at the moment.
On to Endon and under the bridge by the Stoke Boat club with the old swing bridge pivot point dead ahead.

This boat has sat on the bank for as long as I can remember, but what I only noticed this trip was the rudder/skeg set up, with a bar behind the rudder, I wonder if it effects steering at all.

On to Stockton Brook Locks, the first was 90% full which looked good, as we worked down the flight they were all similar, at lock 6 I could see the bottom gates opening on lock 5 so we assumed there was a boat coming up, wrong it was a single hander going down and I sat there until Diana opened the top gates and no boat came out. Its not surprising all the locks were full, they all leak badly at the top, this one looks like its flowing through the cill, others through the paddles.

When we reached the first lift bridge the single hander had gone through, he half raised the bridge to give room to get his boat through then jumped from the deck to the ground, moved the boat through and was wondering how to get back to lower it. I dropped Diana off on the offside, she raised the bridge fully so I could get through and then lowered it. We worked the next one for him and he then set Engine lock for us and invited us through first. We both moored for the night below the lock.

Today’s Journey

6 Locks and 6¾ miles in 3¾ hours

Leek

Plenty of rain again last night but fine when we set off this morning at 10 am but very cloudy. There is no way you should miss sing this pipe bridge.

As Diana brought Harnser into the bottom of the Hazlehurst 3 locks I could see people and a boat at the top lock and before we had lock up the first I could see a boat heading for the middle lock, so that’s one we can leave open. They told me there was a work boat following them down the top lock and by the time Harnser was in the middle lock they were waiting above. It was a Rothen boat with a small dredger on board heading to clear the mud bank further down that stopped us yesterday. The steerer who I know has seen me waving my windlass and she told her partner to leave the gates for us, as he wouldn’t have been able to see us. Once clear of the locks it was a very tight left hander onto the Leek branch, the Marsh Marigoldsare well out but no Bluebells yet.
We met one hire boat on this stretch, thankfully a wide bit and even the sun decided to pay us a visit. Next on the agenda was Leek Tunnel, this has been repaired at some point with pre cast concrete sections. The rest of the construction is large stone blocks, the tunnel is unusually high for a narrow

tunnel, much higher than lots of the bridges on this canal.
Looking up the field on the offside just after the tunnel Diana spotted something white, it turned out to be a large white rabbit, there were another couple further up the field as well as several common coloured ones which were smaller.

Of course we had to go to the very end of the navigation, I think it has silted up a bit since last time we ventured down here, there isn’t room for us

 

to wind at the end so I had to back up to the winding hole by the bridge, we then moored for the night with no other boats here.

Today’s Journey

5 miles and 3 locks in 3 hours

 

If anyone is interested in seeing everywhere we have been this year all our travels are on a Google map HERE  The latest is always the blue one

Cheddleton Flint Mill

We woke to rain but by the time we had finished breakfast it had cleared out and we set off at 10 in quite pleasant weather. Our plan was to spend the night in Froghall Basin on the Uttoxeter Canal, but that didn’t happen.
Before we set off the towpath vegetation management team cam past with strimmer, mower, blower and secateurs for trimming saplings back. The weather didn’t stay fine for long and I suspect these ramblers will have got wet.

We carried on to Cheddleton Flint Mill where Diana jumped ship to find the post box, I carried on through this rather interesting bridge. Please excusethe fallen in towpath edge, its quite common along here. Just beside Cheddleton Top Lock there is an old building called the Old Dock House, this was at one time the Methodist meeting house. The notice on the gable end says it was restored by BWB in 1985, I don’t know how well its been maintained since. Down at the other end of Cheddleton looking across the field is the  Churnet Valley Railway they still have plenty of rolling stock to restore so wont be running of of work any time soon.

We carried on under a very nice new lift bridge that gives access to a field on the towpath side, I wonder if it is ever used? I would imagine the weight limit would be a bit restrictive these days for farm equipment.

We pushed on to Oakmeadow Ford Lock where the canal meets the River Churnet, The indicator was a few inches into the green so safe to continue but I would estimate the flow at about 1½ MPH at the top end, much slower further down where its much wider as we found out when we got down there. CRT had issued an alert about a mud bank, it didn’t say you cant get through, also there was no work going on and the work boats were moored two abreast at the mouth of the bridge, O and it was chucking it down with rain by now. I now had a choice wind or reverse all the way back up the windy river against the flow to the lock. I didn’t fancy trying to wind in front of the weir so reversed back up the river to a point I judged it was wide enough to get round and with the use of the bow thruster pushing the bows against the flow until they were bedded into the mud we got the stern round with about 250mm. to spare. Going back upstream the engine was working much harder

Once clear of the river the rain kindly stopped and we chugged gently back to Cheddleton Mill for the night where we found the Withymoor Island team moored to visit the mill so I was able to update them on the river condition.

 

Today’s Journey

 

8 lock (4 twice) 7¾miles in 4¾ hours

Denford

Back to our normal start time today around 10 am to a nice sunny morning as can be seen from the reflection of this bridge. But looking under the bridge it was no so good. CRT have fixed sheets of Ply or something to the brickwork to try to protect it from the front corners of cabins, but its just ripping the sheets to bit. Why they don’t install fendering at the water level I don’t know.

As we approached Engine Lock we caught up the the Withymoor Island spring cruise so were at the back of a queue of 3. This is quite a deep lock and the bottom paddles are greatly geared, so lots of winding. Since we were last this way Norton Green Lift Bridge has been converted to electrical power with the controls on the tow path side, this makes things a lot easier for single handers.

At Stockton Brook Locks there  was just one boat coming down the flight so they had an easy run, we worked them through one of the locks while we waited. We were still tail end of the convoy. The old Waterworks beside the lock is still looking unloved with lots of broken windows, but still looks structurally sound and secure.

One thing I like about these locks is all the mason marks on the stone blocks.

After the locks we didn’t see the Withymoor until we reached Endon Services where they sorting things out. This looked rather an interesting toy sitting in the open shed, but I suspect its just to look at.The bridge just before the Stoke on Trent boat club and after the old swing bridge , this bridge has lost all its parapet wall, how it happened I don’t know as it doesn’t carry any wheeled traffic.

I think this must be the smallest narrowboat I have ever seen, its actually a trailer, but towing that I would have a smile ear to ear.

When we reached Hazlehurst Junction we met the second boat of the day coming out of the top lock which was handy as we were going down, what wasn’t so good was that the navigation is silted up down at River Churnet, so we will probably wind before there. We locked down the three Hazlehurst Locks and under the new multi thousand pound bridge just below the last lock, that was being worked on last time we were this way.

We carried on passed the Holly Bush pub, we didn’t stop as we are eating onboard and it will leave room for people wanting the pub. We went about another quarter of a mile round the corner and moored for the night.

Todays Journey 7¼ miles, 9 locks in 5¼ hours

Birches Head

I think Diana must have put her clock forward 2 hours as we were away before 9am this morning. The weather app said the sine was shining but outside was very fine rain that slowly works its way everywhere, maybe it was an April Fools Day to catch me out. As the morning progressed the rain got worse and to top it all as I pulled away I picked up a Tesco bag for life, the reinforced ones, same material as builders bags.
Work is still ongoing at Sideway Bridge with rope and fencing in the canal on the offside. This is one of the routes to the football ground.

Looking back at the incinerator you can see how miserable the weather was and this was before it started raining properly.

I think the owner of this boat need to be thinking about getting the c=garden shares out to give it bit of a hair cut, its a bit straggly in places.

We arrived at the bottom of Stoke Locks and there was no queue, the lock was only part full so didn’t take to long to empty. A CRT employee was working hard trying to remove the extra letters that had been added to this “Caution” sign. I couldn’t read the extra letters but what ever they had used to write them wasn’t giving in without a struggle, but at least he was under the bridge out of the rain doing it.

Approaching Cockshute’s lock I could see a boat arriving above so held well back from the railway bridge to give them plenty of room to leave. Stoke Collage have designed a mural for the wall beside the lock hoping people get the message not to dump plastic in the cut..

We met another boat just as we were leaving the lock and then a hire boat just below Johnsons Lock, they looked well experienced and left the gates for us, as we locked up a boat was just leaving the top lock coming down, he said he had come through the tunnel this morning and there were 7 boats waiting to come south.
At Etruria Junction we turned back on our selves to first fill with water and then carry on up the Caldon canal. We had to wait for a boat already on the waterpoint before we could fill up, once that was done, as it was still raining we decided to call it a day and stop on the 48 hr moorings. I took a short walk to look at the old mill and I see it still has a large hole in the roof.

After lunch the rain stopped so we decided to carry on and go a bit further. For some reason Bedford Staircase lock was set ready for us, bottom chamber empty and top one full. Not sure how that could happen other than leaky gates/paddles.

As we passed Hanley Park we were pestered by some youngsters to give them a ride, something I have mixed feelings about but we refused, one of them climbed over the railings of bridge 5A as if to jump down onto the roof but thankfully thought better of it.
There are some interesting old in Hanley, I don’t

know what this long terraced building was, but the name is quite visible on the second one we passed. Johnson Brothers, sanitary manufacturers.

By now the weather was quite pleasant but we saw some inviting piling to moor against between bridges 14 and 14A so decided to call it a day.

Today’s Journey 8 locks, 6¾ miles 4 hours