Narrowboat Firecrest – Page 4 – Coddiwompling with Narrowboat Firecrest

Shugborough Hall

We woke to a perfect cruising day. I was determined that as we passed Great Haywood Junction, where the the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal meets the Trent and Mersey Canal, we would moor up so I could visit Shugborough Hall.

6 or so miles travelling south, under one of my favourite bridges, Salt Bridge, (named as it leads to the village of Salt- where you’ve guessed it, they mined Salt).

The junction was busy as always, but we managed to get one of the last spaces on the 2 day mooring. Eric had some work to do, so I left him to it and went for a walk. The estate is reached by crossing over the 16th century packhorse bridge, Essex Bridge. This where the Trent and the Sow meet and the Trent becomes the major river. This is another of my favourite bridges, although only 14 of the original 40 arches remain.

Essex Bridge, worth stepping off the towpath at Haywood lock to see, even if you don’t go onto the estate.

Although the estate is a National Trust property, the grounds are open to the public to enjoy, with monuments and follies hidden amongst huge trees.

The Chinese house and bridge over the River Sow

The cat monument celebrating Lord Anson’s Persian cat and his flock of Corsican goats built in 1750. And of course some beautiful flowers in the garden

The next day Eric and I set off to explore the house

The estate lands were owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until Henry VIII threw a spanner in the works, and seized their assets. In the 1600’s the Anson family bought the estate, knocked down the manor house and built themselves a stately home. The rest they say is history

Over the years, wealth was amassed through commerce and marriage, the house was extended. They travelled extensively

And many “treasures” and design styles were brought back to the house. We particularly liked this one, a Chinese garden seat, which was was filled with potpourri to help disguise odours emitting from the sitter. Personally we thought it was a forerunner to a USB charger socket

Battles were fort and won on behalf of the crown, and titles were awarded. The most prestigious was in 1831 when the family were given a hereditary peerage, and Thomas Anson became the 1st Earl of Lichfield. However even members of the aristocracy still need to wash their smalls, or employ a small army to do it for them.

Shugborough Hall was given to the National Trust in 1960 in lieu of inheritance taxes, but the 5th Earl was granted an apartment to continue living in. He was the photographer Patrick Lichfield, and many of the items on display were photos he’d taken. This wing is now open to the public which was fascinating seeing it filled with familiar, albeit now retro, crockery and appliances-the sort of thing that savvy shoppers can pick up at car boot sales, and some of us are still using- like our trusty Kenwood Chef. We weren’t permitted to take our own photos in this wing. After so much grandeur and a picnic in the grounds, we were quite happy to return to our little narrowboat to enjoy some natural landscaping along our canal.

Well Well Well

Back in the day, (1500 years ago give or take) the area we are cruising in now, was in the Kingdom of Mercia, the post Roman, Anglo Saxon region, not the rather trendy Marina south of Derby.

It’s a bit hard to pin down the specifics as literacy didn’t seem to take priority over Kingdom building. And to be honest, I still can’t make sense of who owned what or when. But if you look on Google maps there’s a purple historical landmark pin where we are moored. Well, well, well, as soon as the rain had stopped I needed to go and investigate. Right next to the canal is where you will find St Rufin’s Well.

Alas, it’s not all that remarkable at first sight,

And there was a nice circular route around the buttercup meadow, through the hamlet of Burston that would get me back to Firecrest.

Next to the village pond was an info board that told me a bit about St Rufin’s Well and the little chapel tucked away behind the cottages.

Rufin and his older brother Wulfad were the sons of the Pagan King Wulfhere. They had the “good fortune” to meet a prominent monk called Chad who converted them to Christianity. It is believed they were baptised here, in this well. However their father the king was furious and ordered them to be killed, an action he immediately regretted. He went on to meet with Chad and was also converted to Christianity. Chad went on to become the Bishop of Mercia, and both he, Rufin and Wulfad were all canonized for their martyrdom. This all happened in the 7th century and there are many legends and storys about what went on at this time. The power struggles between the Christians and the pagans led to many more slaughters. St Rufin’s Well was also known as the Druids well.
Whilst I was out researching a bit of history, Eric was communicating with his porthole spirit. Just like Aladin polishing his lamp, Eric was polishing his brass when his genie appeared.

This is obviously a spiritual place, there are many churches and memorials dedicated to Rufin, Wulfad and Chad, and there is a recognised pilgrimage walk between Lichfield and Chester cathedrals.

and the water levels are still causing a problem

After an action packed 10 days moored in Stone, which saw us sticking on the solar panels, witnessing a near disaster at Meaford Locks, and taking advantage of us still having our car to explore a little further afield, we were ready move on. I drove the car back to our daughter’s- who had lent it to us back in January for all our toing and froing and utilised my brand new rail card to catch the train back to the boat. Was normality about to be restored? at least the water levels seemed to be OK.
Or so we thought.
There are 4 locks in Stone. As we passed through the first, we noticed the replacement beam was not made of the traditional oak but a plank laminate. Questions were raised about its durability, but at least for now it didn’t look like it was going to collapse.

We passed through Star lock, where, at the Star Inn, James Brindley and his investors met to plan the construction of the Grand Trunk Canal, now the Trent and Mersey Canal. We had gone in earlier to pay homage, where we discovered that, not only was the Star Inn famous for its canal building patrons, it also has an entry in the Guinness book of records for having the most floor levels of a public house. 13 – which is due to subsidence- which doesnt sound healthy for a canal. (Or for anyone having had one too many)

We knew the water levels were still low, but as Eric tried to drive the boat out of the lock, we all heard a horrible crunching. Were we caught on the bottom? Not knowing quite what was underneath of us, I closed the gates and let a few inches of water back into the lock, sufficient to refloat us. And then enlisted some passers by to lend me their muscle power to re open the gates for us to escape. We think there must have been a stone that was just proud enough to catch us, cause after a moments panic, we were OK. The lock needed dredging, and although I did report our incident, CRT are running in crisis management mode and there’s no time or money for preventative action. After a quick stop at the M&S water point, which ironically was fast flowing and easy, we were on our way. The next mile down to Aston Lock was hard work, we needed to keep in the middle of the channel otherwise we were scraping the bottom. Passing boats was a struggle but the word coming up was that the levels were improving.

Below Aston Lock, 45.9 miles to Shardlow, 46.1 to Preston Brook

Due to intense conversation with the upcoming boater – comparing notes about water levels of course, I forgot to take a photo of the mile marker. Aston Lock is the half way point on the T&M. 46 miles to both Preston Brook and Shardlow.
We were travelling on just another half hour because the storm clouds were gathering and we’d had enough excitement for one day. Even the sheep were heading for home

Yes that looks a good mooring

And we made it just in time to tie up before the heavens opened.

warning low water levels

Notices had been coming through thick and fast from CRT about water shortages and closing lock flights. One of the Stone locks was closed for a couple of days for repair, Heartbreak Hill was padlocked temporarily. Those poor holiday makers, how frustrating to have planned to do the four counties ring in a week, only to find themselves unable to plough on with their 9 hour cruising days. Poor hire companies as well for that matter. We’d already felt the bottom at Whitebridge lane as lock usage drained the pound, (section of canal “impounded” between two locks) but as we were sitting in our nice comfy dry boat eating our tea, the heavens opened and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Eric and I shared a sympathetic smile with boat going past us at 6.30pm in the pouring rain. “Why on earth don’t they moor up here where there’s space and call it a day?” we thought, they’ve got to get up the 4 Meaford locks in the rain now, where’s the fun in that. No wonder we didn’t see any more boats that day. Just before we turned in for the night I checked my emails, oh no, another closure….. boat sunk in Meaford locks, rescue squad arriving to assess at 9am…..was it those poor bedraggled holiday makers, or had they got through.

Only one way to find out, as soon as we’d had our first cup of coffee we walked up to the flight. Bottom Lock all clear,
Second lock, the pound looked low,

Mmmm, not much water going over that overflow

Oh dear as we rounded the corner we saw a sight we didn’t want to see again

It was our unfortunate holiday makers,

There was already a gathering of CRT men, I suspect they were the local volunteers and the hire company staff on sight

Not what you expect to see in the engine bay.

The engine had obviously been under water

Theres a lot of weed where there shouldn’t be weed

But the bow was clearly stuck on the cill,
No one could be quite sure how it happened, apparently it happened very quickly. The lock had obviously been full as they had been able to open the gate and had started to leave the lock, when probably due to low water levels they had caught on the cill. Unable to close the gate to add more water as the leaky lock gates then drained the lock and the boat tipped back. It must have been terrifying. Apparently they all got off safely.

And with the top gates open the pound above drained completely.

You can see why it’s so horrible cruising when the water levels are low with so many stones on the bottom.

We debated about whether or not it was acceptable to post pictures of a boat in distress, but as neither the crew or the boat are identifiable we decided it was a salutary lesson to us all. We don’t think the crew was actually at fault, possibly just inexperienced, What they should have done, was let more water into the pound above the lock to refloat their boat. But would we have thought quickly enough to do that in the heat of the moment, who can say. The RCR (river canal rescue) turned up at 9 and they set about planning how to sort it out. So we returned to Firecrest for some breakfast. We planned to walk back up later to see how they were doing, but we couldn’t quite believe it, by lunch time the boat was rescued the pound refilled and boaters were on the move once more. The hire company even managed to get the engine running on the sunk boat and were cruising it back to base.

4 new solar panels

Having realised how much the boat’s solar panel array enhances our lifestyle, (eg saving hundreds of pounds on diesel not running the geni) we really wouldn’t want to be without it. The original 4 panels that we fitted in April 2019 were showing some signs of delamination, there were tiny air bubbles under the surface. Although we hadn’t noticed any reduction in efficiency (although that’s hard to quantify with 7 panels and the British weather). We decided to replace them now while the boat was repainted.
Of course technology doesn’t stand still and the identical panels were no longer available, but Photonic Universe is.

Eric put in hours of research browsing for what would fit, what would match, and most importantly which would give us the maximum power output. Photonic Universe came up trumps again. He did contact other companies, but one failed to reply to the email, and another company had done something daft like listing the size of the transport packaging rather than the panel itself. Whereas we’ve had good service from PU in the past, and they have enough choice to find something to tick all our boxes. Unfortunately, we found some panels go out of stock, and there’s no guarantee that the exact panel will reappear. So decisions were made and panels ordered back in the autumn, and had them delivered back home. Eric unpacked them, checked for faults and consolidated their packaging for easier storage until the time arrived to fit them.

We’d already had a few false starts with mooring locations being unsuitable for DIY or it being too wet or too hot. But goldilocks eventually found the golden spot at Whitebridge Lane moorings in Stone. We set to washing the roof of the boat, -again.

Panels were unwrapped on the bed for final inspection before fitting

Frog tape was applied to the roof carefully marking out the exact position the panel was to go, and glue was applied to the back of the panel. Eric is using “Sticks like sh*t” this time because the last time he used CT1, his glue of choice, he felt it handled differently and had lost its grip. Rumour has it that there’s been change in the formula and in our opinion, it’s no longer so good.

Working together and at speed, cause there’s only 15 minutes before the glue starts to cure, we flipped the panel into place and meticulously smoothed and weighted it down, ensuring the glue came right to the edge. There are two schools of thought, some installers like to leave a few mm gap between roof and panel. Eric thinks this will make the panels less stable to walk on, and potentially problems with rain/condensation getting underneath. So we have opted for bonding the panel firmly to the roof without a gap. The frog tape was removed and the edges checked that no glue was visable on the roof.

The weights we using are our moveable balast. We have 140kg in 10 and 20kg weighs. They usually live under the well deck and very rarely need to be moved, but they do come in handy for jobs like this. Because we’ve only got this many weights we can only do one panel every 8 hours or so, to give it time to set.

We certainly felt like we’d done a thorough workout after shifting all that weight. My job was to tape anti scratch protection to the weights (ie cardboard) which we realised we needed after the first oops. One of the nice things about the Whitebridge moorings is that there is a winding hole, which meant we were able to work on both sides with the safety of the bank. .

It took us 4 days to put all 4 panels on (rain stopped play inbetween 2 and 3) . Anxious, intense and tiring work. We had bought a 5th smaller panel, intending to put it cross ways between the dog box and the cross strut, but when we looked at the extra power we’d gain and the aesthetics, we both felt we could live without it.

Of course having the panels stuck into place is only half the job. Eric will have to wire them in before we can take advantage off them.

The new panels 170w each, and will be wired in pairs
The 2 older panels at the front are 350w each
Giving us a total of 1380w.
In the summer this means all our cruising power comes from solar, (Admittedly being liveaboards, we don’t cruise every day and we rarely cruise for more than 3 hours in any day), and we run the generator maybe once a month.

From Stoke to Stone

Whilst we were living it up in Alnwick, Firecrest was enjoying a peaceful weekend in Stoke’s Festival Park Marina.
It’s not somewhere we’d choose to moor permanently, the power hook up trip is only 6 amp and the H&S fairies shouldn’t be allowed to look at the state of the pontoons. But for a few nights, it’s ideal. It gave us peace of mind, the staff are friendly and helpful, it’s got facilities, and a big Morrisons close by. And the Iris were in bloom so it was pretty as well.

I’d collected the replacement solar panels from home, so our plan was to cruise towards Stone, looking out for a suitable mooring for some serious DIY. Cause those panels were too big to be stored in the boat for long. We’d also treated ourselves to a new boat pole that was still being oiled ready for its life under the elements.

not an ideal storage place for the panels…. or for my temperament

We’ve cruised through Stoke a few times, and love the heritage buildings along the canal

I’d love to know more about what goes on at a Bone and Flint mill

Some have been preserved and are still in use, Whist sadly, some are ready to fall down if they don’t recieve any care and attention.

The conical kilns of the potteries might not be unique but they are a special part of our heritage and should be valued.

But mooring in central Stoke isn’t the most appealing so we cruised on to Barlaston for a rural view.

And some ducky company

No, you can never have too many photos of ducklings

We thought we’d be able to do the panels here, but the spring pollen, blossom and seeds were swirling through the air fast and furious, which meant that by the time we’d got to washing one end of the roof, the first end was already covered in bits that would pollute the glue. So pretty though it was, we moved down through the equally pretty Meaford lock flight.

And onto the Whitebridge Lane moorings at Stone,

Looks like Eric can wash the roof here to his hearts content

With a Heron for company and trees that wanted to keep hold of their spring leaves.

Castles, Beaches, and Family fun

Several of the family have springtime birthdays, so it’s not uncommon for us to gather together to celebrate a “royal birthday,” mine was the significant one this year so I got to choose the location.

One place we’ll never get to on board Firecrest is Northumbria, and a place I’ve always heard good things about is the Northumbrian coast. I chose to rent a house in Alnwick. (Of course when we made this choice we thought we’d be cruising over the leeds and liverpool canal, which meant it wasnt quite such a long drive, but there you go, plans change) The Physicians House in Alnwick sleeps 10 so plenty of room for my closest family and friends and ideally located for us go off and do our own things during the day and gather to eat drink and make merry in the evenings.

This was just the start of the merriment, I can’t post photos of what came next

Alnwick itself is a perfect little market town, protected by its castle,

And birthplace of Henry Percy, who became known as Harry Hotspur, because of his speed when it came to doing battle with the marauding Scots. (also known for his part in the downfall of Richard II, his part in Shakespear’s Henry IV part 1, and for his family lands being the site of a certain London based football club.)

The castle is open to the public, but our packed weekend meant we just didn’t have enough time to visit it. Instead we took a short drive out to Craster and walked along the beach to see the dramatic Dunstanburgh castle. Turner had a similar idea but he thought it needed to be a bit more dramatic when he painted in in 1798

I’m not sure that I agree.

Due to its isolated location, it wasn’t maintained and fell into ruins after the war of the Roses (1455-1487)
Nowadays it’s home to the seabirds.

I’ve always loved being by the sea, and one of my favourite childhood pastimes was playing French Cricket on the beach. In those days it was usually with a pieces of driftwood, but Amanda had come prepared.

The Alnmouth Beach French Cricket Team 2025

Diana and Chris had also come prepared with some silly races

I think we provided entertainment for the whole beach

But we generally just enjoyed being a family all together

We went on wild walks through the rock pools

Bamburgh castle was magical

Sea mist rising from the hot sand in front of the castle

I even learnt to fly, albeit only for a few seconds

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks

Whilst we couldn’t squeeze in a look inside Alnwick castle, we did go into the gardens with its amazing water features and scary poison garden

It was hot enough to eat lots of icecream but we were too full of maltezer birthday cake,

It was a truly memorable weekend, and I wish I could have included so many more of my friends and family

Eric and I will return to Northumbria, in a smaller property for a proper explore in years to come but for now, I am a happy 60 year old and I have a rail card.

Many many happy memories, thanks everyone.

But it’s only 6 miles

….and 25 locks from the bottom lock at Wheelock to the top lock at Red Bull, Kidsgrove. No wonder it’s known as Heartbreak Hill. Even the summit of that big hill Everest is only 5.5miles above sea level, but I’ve more sense than to attempt that only carrying a windlass. Not to mention my dodgy logic. We set off from Ettiley Heath at 7am so as to beat the heat.

The forecast was for the hottest day of the year so far, mid 20’s, so we only planned to cruise until 11 then find a tree to moor under.

Entering Wheelock Bottom Lock, the start of the flight

As per ususal we gave a big sigh of relief that our chosen mode of transport took us under the M6 and not along it. Although to be fair, the country would be a very different place if we still relied on the canals to get goods from A to B.

That caravan is nearly as long as Firecrest,

We found our tree after 12 locks and settled down to watch the world go by, except it didn’t, the canal is exceptionally quiet, only 6 boats in the whole day cruised past us.

The next day was a lot busier, although some people had the right idea.

Wonder what they serve at the Red Bull pub?

We’d done the hill in 2 days, and it really wasn’t too bad. It’s a pretty section of canal and there’s several nice mooring places to break up the journey. Plan B had been to turn onto the Macclesfield canal here, but alas, due to the April breach we were now onto Plan C, travelling south. We topped up at the very convenient canal side Lidl, and set off through the tomato soup to go through the Harecastle Tunnel.

“Who said red and green should never be seen”

I didn’t manage to catch the skeleton on camera very well this transit, it must have been running away….

or was it running to catch us, either way I wasn’t hanging around to find out. After 38 minutes underground we were happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We moored up outside the Middleport Pottery to plan our next adventure

Looking good for your age

After 4 lock free months it was time to get back into the swing of things.

Passing the entrance to the Middlewich Branch

There are just 5 locks on the Trent and Mersey going through Middlewich, which allowed us to stretch those muscles and start building up some stamina again.

Kings Lock on the Trent and Mersey, Middlewich

And of course after all that hard work….. with the help from three volunteer lockies, we had to reward ourselves with the best fish and chips on the cut from King’s Lock Chippie.

After all we were celebrating my birthday

Chocolate Fudge cake, with the appropriate number of candles

Yes we did eat it all, but not in one go. We moved on to Ettiley Heath where we tried to bribe Mike Carter with a slice when he came to do our Boat Safety inspection. He wasn’t having any of it, not that he needed bribery, Firecrest is well maintained and passed with flying colours.

Looking towards Watchlane Flash at Ettiley Heath

We moved onto Firecrest in 2017. You might have noticed that after 8 years we have finally added our painted Firecrest image as a blog icon so if you have stored our blog on your home pages or own blog roll hopefully it will be a little easier to see. Apologies that we still don’t accept comments on our posts.

Spring Greens with a sprinkling of salt

Plan C is to travel south, aiming towards Rugby by mid summer. We might take a detour through some of the Birmingham canals that we’ve not yet cruised but we’re taking full advantage of our new found freedom to decide later.

First we were going to call in to Uplands Marina for an overnight stop. We had completely forgotten to include the side hatch window inserts in the repaint contract, and honestly who would want blue curtains on a green boat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As soon as we realised, Nick offered to do them whilst we cruised up to Lymm.

Sometimes blue and green make the perfect combo

Plus we still had some electricity left on the meter so we might as well charge up the batteries, especially as we still haven’t replaced the solar panels that were removed before our repaint. Not having our full solar capacity was most frustrating when we were enjoying a mini heatwave.

Leaving the lovely spring greens behind

we travelled through the 2000 year old salt mines and brine pits of Eastern Northwich, past the Victorian Lion Salt works, which is now a fascinating museum and well worth a visit.

Through the modern day chemical processing plant currently run by Tata

From the ancient salt mines to the modern chemical works.

Onto Middlewich, where we moored against a perfect painting edge for Eric to touch up the blacking

Whist I kept a eye on the wildlife

Or were they keeping an eye on me?