With Firecrest safe and secure in Shobnall marina for a few days, we hired a car and drove up to the Lakes. Its always a treat to stay at Mums, even if shes no longer with us. This is where I used to play as a child, no wonder I love living on the water now.
My back garden
I was booked in to go to The Cumbrian Wool Gathering, and for a yarnie like me who loves knitting and spinning and crochet and felting infact anything textile, two whole days of woolly magic is my idea of heaven. Whilst a yarn festival might be my idea of heaven, Eric dutifully handed over the credit card and left me to it so I could take advantage of some very talented people showcasing small businesses from studios in Cumbria and some a bit further afield.
All things considered I was quite restrained in what came home with me
When we got back to Firecrest we cruised back towards Alrewas. We were admiring the open countryside around Branston lock, when a walker told us to make the most of it. This green space is due to have 100’s of houses built on it.,
Approaching Branston Lock
Going upstream on the River section was a bit of a struggle, it might have looked a lovely day, but the wind was fierce and the flow was fast, it felt like we were trudging through treacle.
Hope we aren’t going under that bridge
Luck was on our side to get the last available 14 day mooring and we settled down to enjoy village life.
Sunset from Gallows Bridge
We were in for another treat as it was Alrewas Open Gardens weekend.
We were to discover some hidden gems
There were 32 gardens for us to visit and they ranged from postage stamps and wild flowers right through to some Chelsea showstoppers
Impossible to pick our favourite garden, but some of my favourite flowers
And of course no village show would be complete without a bit of yarn bombing
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.
Bye bye Burston
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).
Salt Bridge, 82
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.
As we couldn’t trust being able to cruise the full length of Leeds and Liverpool, we’ve opted to meander towards Chester. We’re going to stay in the northwest with the hope that we can cruise east next spring. But watch this space things could change. So for now we’ve booked ourselves 7 nights on the Bridgewater, to unlock the rest of our summer
Its scary seeing the size of lock gates out of the canal
Our RHS tickets were valid until the end of the month so we stopped off for the night outside RHS Bridgewater Garden
Its just over two months since we were last here, and the plants had magically transformed from a mass of purple iris and alliums into a hot bed of oranges and yellows. Hard to say which season I prefer. RHS Bridgewater is very much a 21st century garden where nature has been embraced and encouraged. Several potentially formal herbaceous borders were scattered with wild flowers seeds and the rewards were worthy of Monnet’s painting skills, or perhaps Jackson Pollock could splatter some colour like this.
Our meanderings into the art world took us into the heart of Manchester, as we took a detour and turned left at Stretford for a night moored in Castlefields. We were lucky to be able to meet up with Rito and overwhelmed by the choice of what to do in the city, we opted for the Manchester Art Gallery
You can never quite tell what impact an art gallery is going to make. Some are stuffed with halls and halls of old masters which beyond appreciating the detail and talent of the artist, leave me a bit bored. Manchester hit the nail on the head by mixing up the periods, giving them context, and celebrating local art in all shapes and forms, and really made us stop and wonder
what is this strange object ?
We saw a fair few Lowry’s, but outside I had to pay homage to a hero of mine, Emmeline Pankhurst who came from Manchester, thankyou.
Cruising through Manchester has a bit of a reputation, and it wasn’t certain that we would be able to get a mooring in Castlefields but we were lucky, we found a space and it felt safe enough. Interesting being surrounded by the old and modern buildings, ( although I think the planning board need to consider the aesthetic impact of the high rises)
Castlefields by day evening and early morning
Rito went home to sleep in his own bed overnight, but joined us again as we cruised back out of central Manchester. Past the start (or end) of the Rochdale canal,
Im not sure I fancy going through that lock
And some very impressive arches carrying the transport infrastructure that helped make Manchester the thriving city it is.
Past some impressive street art, and some bad graffiti,
the city of Manchester adopted the image of of the worker bee over 150 years ago because it encompasses the ethic of hard work and a hive of activity
Past the famous football ground,
Work hard and play hard
And back into the “country side”
but that can’t be real countryside, just look at the towpath qualityA good 2 days enjoyed.
Back in 2012 the Trent and Mersey suffered a significant breach in its structure at Dutton, the T&M society have a very interesting summary with some dramatic photos.
And whilst the plaque marking the spot is understated,
the consequences of the repair are some of the best moorings in the vicinity, with views over the Weaver valley and the impressive rail viaduct
Dutton Viaduct
And if you’re lucky a rainbow as well
looking over towards the Welsh hills
A few hours earlier the sun had been cracking the flags and we took the opportunity to walk up to the Bluebell Cottage nursery, a small family business, that also opens up the garden on Wednesdays to Saturdays in the summer.
A beautiful garden
And yes there is a beautiful bluebell wood
We’d booked our passage onto the Bridgewater canal from Monday so on we went.
Preston Brook Tunnel
The Bridgewater canal is owned by Peel Holdings, rather than managed by Canal and River Trust, so we had to doff our caps and book a week’s passage before we were allowed transit through the tunnel.
Would you like to come to our house? Our friends Helen and James asked us as we travelled north up the Staffs and Worcester, well not actually their house but their local NT property and only 5 minutes walk from the canal. And so after a mornings cruise together,
James at the helm
we moored up at Wightwick Bridge Visitor Mooring
Good mooring at wightwick bridge
and strolled across to the Manor.
Wightwick Manor (pronounced witick)
Built in the late 1880’s, Wightwick Manor, was built for Theodore Mander and his family. They were inspired by the Arts and Craft style so lots of William Morris and Rossetti to see. It was also a period known as the Aesthetic movement -basically art for arts sake.
The family still have an apartment in the house and are known to enjoy Christmas there, although I’m not sure if they still use the dining room.
But I bet they are tempted to play the odd frame of snooker
As always you can’t visit a NT house without a visit to the bathroom, and in this case the sluice, containing a collection of slipper bedpans, not all that dissimilar to the sluices and bedpans in the hospital where I did my nurse training and that was in 1983.
Lots more laughter as we enjoyed the gardens
me and Helen
Definitely a property I’d visit again. Even if just to walk around the garden.
We don’t take advantage of our National Trust membership as often as we should but Packwood House in Lapworth was a mere 20 minute stroll from our mooring. The sun was shining so off we set.
Moored just below the Drawbridge farm lift bridge
Originally built in the 1500s this grade 1 listed manor house fell into neglect until it was bought and restored by Graham Baron Ash in the 1920s. He donated it to the NT in the 1940s. Baron (his name not a title) continued to live there until he moved out to Wingfield Castle taking a fair bit of the best stuff with him. However, as with a lot of this magnificent old buildings the bathrooms remain and continue to fascinate us.
oh to be able to soak in a bath like that
Baron had been a keen traveller and great collector of things that pleased him. And nowadays the volunteers bubble over with enthusiasm to share their knowledge of the artefacts. We particularly liked this intricate lacquered chest.
And the great hall that had been transformed from the cattle byre into the party annex
But you had better behave yourselves because you were being watched
However Packwood is known most for is the Yew garden.
From the entrance its very imposing and formal , but once you’re inside, its quite surreal, we felt like characters from Alice in wonderland walking through a giant chess game. The oldest trees date back from the 1600’s, but alas they are showing their age and a lot of work is being done to restore and repair the garden.
impossible to capture without swiping a photo from the NT website
But grand though the yew trees were, you can’t beat a field of daffodils
There have been so many highlights during this years cruising, its been hard to keep up with our adventures. Many years ago, we lived in Surrey and had membership to the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley. So when we realised we could moor only 30 minutes walk away, we leapt at the chance to visit. And also to meet up with our family to relive some of the happy memories of mum and dad who used to come here most weekends. Wisley is full of iconic vistas which will be very familiar to people who visit often.
Looking up the rockery
But its not a garden that stands still in time. So much had changed since our last visit. They are currently digging a huge new reservoir which will be disguised as a “lake” to help them manage that most precious of resources. And as Eric is from a family of engineers , this was worth a close inspection.
It just looks like a giant sand pit to me
And despite the general current shortage of rain, the gardens have been maintained and the borders are spectacular.
The cool Herbaceous border
And much to my amazement, the big glass house was pleasantly cool to walk around even though it looked like a dessert
and we spent some time chatting in there, and wondering what they had done with the old orchid house that we all remembered
Just some of the family
Its not really orchid season, but still some in flower in their new tropical home
And it wasn’t all cactus
Once we left the glass houses we were treated to a walk through the South African velt
The Heather garden had only just been planted 30 years ago and at the time it looked, quite frankly, boring, but not any more, although there’s not too many family gardens that are big enough to copy this in its entirety.
One of the places Mum and Dad used to love spending time (besides the cafe) was the rockery
Which again is on such a scale that you couldn’t transplant it all into the average garden, but when Eric and I moved to Suffolk, and attempted a bit of landscaping in our new garden, we took a lot of inspiration from the Wisley rockery.
One of the things I miss in our boat home is not having a garden to grow vegetables so we were fascinated by the concepts being researched at Wisley in their “veg plot”. They are currently trialling a “no dig” policy for their veg, and these two comparison plots showed just how beneficial it can be to avoid digging. Mind you I think the benefit is enhanced by the amount of good quality mulch applied each year.
Identical planting, but the top bed has been dug and the lower one has been mulched
But as all the gardeners world presenters remind us gardens aren’t just for working in, relaxing with friends is just as important. Not only did we enjoy a day on our own, and a day with family. We were also treated to a surprise visit from our good friends from Suffolk
And a day with one of Eric’s work colleagues and his family
Wisley isnt the cheapest garden to visit as a one off, but it offers exceptionally good value membership deals, which give access to several other RHS gardens and partner gardens. And as Wisley covers such a huge site, its definitely worth breaking a visit into 2 or more days to be able to appreciate it all.
But as I frequently remind Eric, you can never see too many roses.
And what’s more the mooring is next to the Anchor pub who did very good wood fired pizza.
We werent the only ones who enjoyed visiting Wisley our friends and family did too, and we even got the youngsters to help out with the locks when we took them for a mini cruise
I think thats next years holiday idea sorted
apologies for the number of photos today, this is only a fraction of what we took.
One of the many nice things about cruising on rivers is that the locks are often manned
Always happy to help
with someone keeping an eye open for those brave enough to pass through
and invariably a doddle compared to canal locks even if the lockie isnt on duty
The Upper Thames lockies use a long pole and hook to open and close the far side. Its very impressive.
Is it a pole or a jousting lance
But what’s also impressive is that the lock keepers job comes with a cottage,
Grafton lock cottage
Which is ok until you remember these guys are also only paid for a working week but are on call 24/7 – Unless its lunch time from 1 till 2 every day. However the river seems quiet with not much traffic which is probably why they have enough time to keep their gardens looking good. We think there must be a degree of rivalry over who can have the best topiary Although it looks like the frog wants to eat the tulips.
The Rushey lock frog
Not sure if this is a fancy haircut, or work in progress, either way it made us chuckle
Burscot locks entry
But the winner surely has to be the grafton cat ready to pounce on the swan
I wonder what the swan really thinks
Whilst we were cruising back downstream we became very aware of the air traffic. The escorted jet was bringing Boris back from India, or might have been, because moments before we saw an identical entourage, so one of them must have been a decoy. We think the two flying in parallel might have been in training for mid air refuelling because they really stuck close by each other for the best part of a morning. And the jet on its own, was one of many that we saw, including the Awax reconnaissance planes, checking we had paid for a Thames license. Once we looked at the map and realised how close we were to several RAF bases, the quantity of planes made sense.
They’re definitely on a mission
The swan by the way is sitting on 8 eggs, and the cat is actually hoping for some tuna to swim past.
