Staffordshire – Page 3 – Narrowboat Firecrest

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.

I don’t believe it

I don’t believe it….. We finally get cruising, and ….. the memo comes through from CTR that there’s been a landslide and trees down ahead of us stopping navigation for at least 2 days. Not only that but the weather is perfect cruising weather.

We were sitting at the Fazeley Junction

Sitting at the junction, waiting to turn onto the Birmingham and Fazeley canal

Our options included staying put until we got the allclear, detouring through Aston and centre of Birmingham, or …. back tracking back to Fradley Junction, and carrying on along the Trent and Mersey then up the River Soar. Rightly or wrongly, we didn’t fancy sitting it out, or facing all the Aston locks with unknown mooring options, so we winded and back tracked.

We’ll do the Fazeley canal another time. As I’d just had another few days off the boat sorting out mum’s affairs, we were desperate to be cruising again, and my reward was seeing our first ducklings of the year.

I had an easy lock free day, and even when we turned right at Fradley the volunteers were ready and willing to help us through,

Then we got to Alrewas, such a pretty place,

Until you see this

It didn’t take us completely by surprise to see the red warning signs but we’d spoken to the lockies and we knew the river levels were falling. Much to the consternation of a holiday boater we went through the lock knowing we could moor up on the other side of the village and await our go ahead.

We walked along the towpath to see what awaited us

Sure enough, CRT came along and removed the padlocks giving us the all clear ride the rapids. Several boats were itching to go through ASAP, but we decided to wait until the morning.

I think those fields would be more suited to water buffalo than our cows

Thought for the day

Speed Boating

Speed boating, or Endurance boating, ….Well it felt like it for us. We rarely cruise for over 3 hours a day, but with so many delays both Eric and I were keen to push on. 5 or 6 hours cruising on a few days.

Back in mid December, a few days before the breach at Scholar’s Green halted our journey south, we treated ourselves to a Gold Licence intending to spend the season cruising the East Anglia waterways. 10 weeks later we finally broke free and sailed through to Kidsgrove.

10 and half weeks later I got the phone call to return home, but now 4 weeks later we’re finally on the move again. We dutifully checked our route maps and CanalPlanAC says 115 miles, 69 locks, 57 hours.. Kidsgrove to Northampton.
But no, there’s been a major landslide at Brinklow and our direct route is blocked until mid June. We’ll have to travel via Birmingham, 125 miles and 128 locks and 68 hours. That’s almost twice as many locks to do. (James if you’re reading this, be warned we’re coming via Hatton.)
But we all love locking, especially when the sun’s shining, and we’ve already done 23.

Approaching one of our 128, somewhere below Stoke

We got very lucky with the Easter Bank Holiday weather, and we had some perfect cruising weather from Stoke. Even the occassional heavy showers ended with a rainbow

No one offered to swim across to find the pot of gold

We were surprised at how quiet the canal was, despite it being the start of the hire season and a 4 day weekend,

Dead quiet, This person obviously spent too long on their mobile

Perhaps the wild swan at Weston had seen everyone off. We’ve cruised this way a couple of times and for the past few years, this territorial swan has chased us off his patch, pecking at the boat. This time we were brave enough to moor overnight in Weston and saw him attack several trespassers.

The much nicer Swan at Fradley was doing a roaring trade and has provided a photo fit for next years self print calender

Leaving the Trent and Mersey at Fradley junction, and joining the Coventry canal

What Eric hauled up from the prop wasn’t quite so pretty,

It could have been worse, only a rope fender this time

And talking of pretty

We had a rained off day, so we caught the bus into Lichfield to have a wander around. The weather didn’t make for good photos, but we did both enjoy our mooch. It’s quite a historic place, in the 7th century, Chad established his Bishopric, and it became the ecclesiastical centre of Mercia. Unfortunately the famous 3 spired cathedral was wearing scaffolding so not looking its best.

One of Lichfields other claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, who complied the first English Dictionary

But whilst I might enjoy words, not a lot beats sunrise on your own boat.

A month ago

A month ago….

we had made it down the Bosley Flight, and we both rejoicing and bemoaning to be heading south… straight into the morning sun.

We meandered our way into Congleton. I met up with one of my many knitting friends scattered around the country. Gilly introduced us to fantastic little place, called the Wonky Pear, wine bar/pub/coffee stop just up from the canal off Park Lane, they don’t usually do food, other than cake, but they had a pop up evening of Thai Street food. And if we were local, we’d definitely make if our local. But we were on a mission, so set off as soon as the sun rose, we ignored the dire warning from the red sky in the morning and the frost on the ground (it was still the end of february)

looking towards the railway from the Congleton Aqueduct moorings

And we set off, but it was cold cruising, so we stopped near the Ramsdell Railings and went for a brisk walk up to Mow Cop which certainly warmed us up.

This old ruined castle is actually an 18th century folly where the gentry came for picnics. You can see for miles and it’s the intersection of the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. It’s also the first meeting place of the Primative Methodists, a breakaway revivialist group wanting to refocus on the socialist aims of Christianity, caring for the community, being part of the trade union movement and taking an active role in women’s emancipation. I offered my prayers of thanks for such a place and we carried on journeying south. Where we also gave thanks that the culvert breach from Mid December had finally been fixed

And onto the Hall Green Stop Lock at Scholar’s Green

Before our travels came to an abrupt stop at Kidsgrove

A few days of treats

We enjoy several spring time birthdays in our family, so declare whichever days are appropriate to celebrate a royal birthday, any excuse to eat cake and see family.

We picked up ‘Rito and Nova in Stone and set them to work doing the locks,

And we rewarded them with yet more ducklings

Can you ever see too many ducklings? What a daft question

No cygnets yet though

But we did see our first goslings in Etruria

We stopped to fill up with water under the watchful eye of James Brindley at Etruria junction

And moored up outside the Middleport pottery.

Where we had the good fortune to meet up with Reginald on her(?) way down to the Crick show, we might be biased but, it’s a beautiful boat, and full of some very clever innovations, not to mention James exceptional woodworking skills.

Always a nice treat to see friends and family,

Meeting at the Manor

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,

we moored up at Wightwick Bridge Visitor Mooring

and strolled across to the Manor.

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

Definitely a property I’d visit again. Even if just to walk around the garden.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/birmingham-west-midlands/wightwick-manor-and-gardens

A few days of firsts

We could happily have stayed a few days soaking in the tranquility at the lower end of the Stourbridge canal. But we were ready to continue our journey north.

just four more locks before the junction

And onto the Stafforshire and Worcestershire canal.

This canal was built in the 1770’s to service the potteries around Stoke on Trent. However trade declined when newer canals provided a more direct route between Liverpool and the South. In order to remain competitive the canal company increased the lock opening hours and reduced the tolls. Now there’s an interesting idea. It’s a very pretty canal that cuts through the red sandstone rock in places, and follows the meandering rivers and Smestow Brook.

Within minutes of turning north, the smell of wild garlic hit us, so I leapt off to gather a bunch to make pesto our first spring foraging treat.

You just need to harvest the leaves, but make sure you identify what’s garlic and what isn’t, everyth8ng looks lush and green right now

Our next first was seeing our first ducklings of the year, 24th April. Out of interest I looked back to last year and my first duckling photo was on 23rd April.

there were another 5 who were a bit camera shy

And another first, this time for James Brindley in 1770, as he managed to combine a lock and road bridge in one crossing.

And whilst we were ticking off firsts, we realised that this was the first time we had done the Bratch Locks in sunshine. It was raining so hard last time we had to bribe the lockies to leave their toll booth to help us

It’s an amazing feat of engineering, originally a staircase lock of three, the water level changes by over 30′. Although technically its now individual locks it still needs to be treated as a staircase and there’s usually a lock keeper on duty to make sure no one sinks. Sadly James Brindley died a few months before it became operational.

The locks are fierce and powerful, we often chat to the families watching at locks and always remind the children never to play close to the edge because of the undercurrents. We had never seen a whirlpool as big as this one at a lock

The vortex was between 8 and 12 inches across.

Finally something we’ve come to enjoy peaceful mooring

The Midlands March, up the Merry Hill

As we feared the canal was frozen over when we woke, but when I gingerly leaned out the side hatch and poked it, it was obvious, we’d be skating on thin ice, which was thawing rapidly

So when we saw the door of opportunity floating towards us we set off. Turning immediately right onto the Stourbridge Extension canal.

Past Delph wharf, which, as the notice says, offered hard standing for boats of all sizes

Under Black Delph bridge, which marks the start (or end) of the Dudley No 1 canal, part of the Birmingham Canal Navigation and the start (or end) of the Delph flight of 8 locks. As luck would have it, as I set the first lock, we struck gold, not one but 3 CRT gems. Two of whom were volockies, who helped us up the flight in under an hour.

That’s what we like to see, helpers at locks

And we were mightily glad we made good speed because as we emerged from lock 8 (or was it lock 1) there were snow flurries in the air

And 5 minutes later, we were cruising past Merry Hill, the huge retail complex, but although there was lots of mooring, it was very exposed.

So we rounded the corner to moor at the Waterfront Basin, by the time we finished tying up it was almost blizzard like.

We hadn’t intended to go further, so we battoned down the hatches and snuggled up to keep warm, we could have ventured over the bridge to enjoy the delights of Wetherspoons and the shops.

I imagine it is a lot more inviting in the sun

But the thought of catching pneumonia appealed even less than catching that other nasty bug doing the rounds. It did look nice at night though.

We travelled 4 miles and did 8 locks

The Midlands March, 16 locks

There wasn’t a lot, but we definitely saw a dusting of snow on the towpath this morning.

And with a flight of 16 locks to work through I was a bit worried about slipping on ice. But the sun was shining as we entered the first lock on the stourbridge flight at 10am

We passed some lovely old buildings, that probably thrived on canal trade

I wanted to stop at the Red House glass works Museum,

but word was starting to filter down that there was a problem ahead….. “The canals been dredged” “the canals empty” “there’s a swan stuck in the mud” ….. I think the walkers thought we were mad to keep going on up the flight, but what else where we to do until we’d seen the problem for ourselves.

Mmm Firecrest won’t be going through that quagmire

And sure enough we got to Swan Bridge winding hole to find it impassible. Did we call CRT or walk up and check the paddles first? We opted to check the paddles hadn’t been left open and then draw some water down to refill the pound. There didn’t seem to be much amiss in the section above, and despite it seeming a large area, the levels had risen sufficiently in just over half an hour to be navigable.

And typically just as we were breathing a huge sigh of relief a well armed CRT man turned up with his rake. I didn’t pick up if he’d been told about the problem by someone else, but he agreed we had done the right thing. And he also identified the cause of the problem. Something was stopping the ground paddle being fully wound down. And he knew that the last boat on the flight before us was the day before, so there had had been plenty of time to drain the pond. He set too with his rake and after quite some effort, he hauled a child’s scooter and some plastic out thus allowing the paddle to close properly.

We all surmised that the scooter looked new, so we think it must have fallen in rather than been discarded thrown in. The current then sucked it into the paddle channel. So not a deliberate act of vandalism, just a consequence of an unfortunate accident. Sadly though, we are now in an urban area, where there are enough morons who think it acceptable to use the canal as a dumping ground or for sport throwing in shopping trolleys and traffic cones. And for some make their “artistic” presence known.

Thankfully those people are in the minority and plenty more enjoy the benefits of the canal. It’s not always rubbish that gets pulled out as we saw this enormous Pike being landed

We made it through the top lock 4 hours after we set off. And with CRTs permission we moored on the bollards.

With a clear sky and a crescent moon it’s quite beautiful

Less than 2 miles and 16+ locks

The Midlands March, a new year and a new adventure.

And so with the new year’s resolution not to neglect our blog still ringing in my ear, we are setting off on a new adventure. We have a plan, a rough route and an excitement for what lies ahead. Yes we know there might be one or two spanners thrown into our works but here goes.
We plan to cruise across the Midlands, through Warwickshire and Oxfordshire. It’s 110 miles to Oxford where we plan join the mighty river Thames for the warmer months.

The map on the right is our planned route, the Google map on the left just gives a rough geographic idea

But in typical boaters fashion our plans had to change from day 1. We had arranged to meet friends in Kinver, but on chatting to another boater we realised our chosen route through the Dudley tunnel was restricted access. And because we had seen a potential restriction on our alternative route we cancelled that reunion in order to get to beyond the stoppage. We also knew the weather was about to turn and proper winter was about to return.
Thankfully the blue skies were promising. And we turned easily onto the Stourbridge canal, the start of this adventure.

The Stourbridge canal was completed in 1779, it has a few branches but over its 6 miles it effectively joins the Dudley canal with the Staffs and Worcester canal, and was used for transporting coal, ironstone and lime. It cost around £38, 000 to build and was a profitable venture for its investors, so much so that the company was able to support the mines and other local industries. The railways and road networks gradually took the trade and the canals commercial traffic petered our in the 1930s.
I knew that it wouldn’t be long before we would be cruising in an urban landscape so we moored up just before Wordsley junction for our last look at the countryside.

Between middle bridge and Wordsley junction

Today’s journey about 2 miles and 4 locks