We cruised through the last lock into Penkridge in glorious sunshine.
Otherton Lock
Although that grey cloud ahead of us should have given us a clue, we had barely finished mooring when the heavens opened. Torrential rain and hailstones.
Filance 5 day VM
It didn’t last, and we woke the next morning to a perfect autumnal scene
We’d moored in Penkridge because the train station is easy to get to, and I was treating myself to day at the the Staffordshire Wool Gathering so needed to get to Stafford. As I’d anticipated it was an awesome experience, over a 100 artisan crafters selling everything a yarn addict could dream of, (with the exception of more time and storage space)
The glorious Staffordshire wool gathering
I was very restrained and reminded myself that I live on a narrowboat with limited storage that is already overflowing with more wool than a flock of sheep. But it was a good day out. And Eric had cooked tea for me on my return. Whilst we had some time on our hands and a good mooring, I took advantage of the trains and took a trip up to the Lakes to see family, and the village sheep.
I was hoping to play in the beech woods, but the weather didn’t provide me with the opportunity. Although I did get to visit one of my favourite childhood picnic spots
Tilberthwaite Ghyll
Back on board Firecrest, Eric had moved the boat further along, away from a rather large leaning tree just in case storms Austen and Boelo brought it down. I travelled back on the Friday and much to my surprise, the train was only delayed by 30 minutes.
Princefield Bridge
Austen and Boelo did pay us a visit, but wind is difficult to photograph. Luckily for us, not with as much force as elsewhere, I think the hedges either side of us offered a degree of shelter. The big tree behind us is now leaning at an even more perilous angle, but is only more inconvenient to the tow path trawlers now.
It’s increasingly easy to criticise CRT these days, but in this little post I’d like to say a well done and a thankyou. We said our goodbyes to NB Kingsley Vale and set off down the Gailey locks
Gailey lock and Round House
It’s a picturesque gem with its highly unusual lock keepers cottage. Why build a round tower next to a lock? The canal passes under the old roman road, Watling Street and the heavy bridge obscured the view north. So if you cant see under it or around it, think logically and look over it. Hence the watch tower, so the lock keepers could look north to see what was coming. The next lock in this rise is Brick Kiln lock, and I’d hazard a guess that its where the bricks came from to build the Gailey Round house. When we travelled south on our way to Wolverhampton a few weeks ago, I took a photo of this lock out of sheer amazement that it was still considered safe to operate.
There’s not a lot left of that beam
But it was on the schedule for winter repair work. I guess someone like me, was also dubious. And guess what….
Perhaps not quite as pretty as a traditional black and white beam, but at least it not going to collapse for another year or two
Sitting by the side were 3 pieces of rotting oak. And a very newly constructed beam.
I know logically that there will always be a day before and a day after a repair, but it was just such a good thing to see a repair done earlier than scheduled. So I’m saying thankyou CRT.
Now what about Rodbaston lock with it’s this self filling system, I think those leaky gates need some attention, as we’re trying to empty it.
Having recovered from our BCN disaster, we are now meandering slowly towards our winter mooring goal. And whilst there is still sun on our backs and golden leaves on the trees we shall make the most of our “idyllic lifestyle”.
But which way should we go, the Heron suggests Chester,
Tempting though it is, we carried on heading towards Great Haywood. Up through the Autherley Narrows, very grateful for a passing place when we saw an oncoming boat. Eric was able to hop off an hold the boat in close, whilst we let the hire boat scrape their paintwork along those vicious rocks.
We waved a hello to Kim and Paul on Kumpali, as we cruised through Coven but we weren’t able to stop for a cuppa. Hoping to catch up soon.
We passed through the SI chemical plant, with its dire warnings not to stop, especially if you hear the sirens alarm. I wonder what they’re making. We didnt hang around to find out.
Theres obviously a lot of infrastructure being developed between Four Ashes and Gailey. It’s a pretty section of canal that seems to be suffering from the encroaching development
Apparently this was to be a huge rail and transport hub, but something fell apart because the development has ground to a halt and the land has been bought by a Canadian company and work stopped. However, there has obviously been some negotiation between the relevant authorities. I suspect the developers paid for the new towpath, which looks very fine.
Or at least that was our initial thought until we realised that there’s mooring implications.
Those holes in the soil are the mooring rings. the towpath level has probably been raised. I wonder how long it’ll be before those rings are buried in the falling leaves and uncut grass. But at least theres still Armco…. which is great … until you have to kneel down on the slope facing the canal…. I don’t know about you, but my physics tells me that my centre of gravity is no longer “central” and if I’m not careful it’ll be head first into the water.
Still, even though I didnt fall in this time, it did make us chuckle at the lack of foresight. We stopped for water at Gailey, and just as I was about to set the lock to go down, we saw another boat coming up. Double win, not only did it mean I didnt have to set the lock, but it was familiar faces. Adam and Adrian on NB Kingsley Vale. I’d not had the guided tour before so Adrian showed me around. It’s a fabulous boat and lovely home. I also got to meet the adorable little Macc whilst we shared cake and coffee.
We were so exhausted after our ditch crawl the day before, we weren’t sure we would be cruising today, but the sun was shining, the prop was clear and there was enough bacon left for more butties, so we gingerly inched forward out of our safe haven.
Leaving Bentley Park
Theres an interesting sculpture over the canal but I couldnt find any information about it. It’s a polished stainless steel triangular tube that arches over the canal and if you catch it at the right angle and sunlight, it reflects an image of whatever is underneath it. We couldnt see any functional use for it other than it being an interesting art instalation. Sadly the rest of the artwork nearby was more destructive and unappealing.
On our outward journey we had stopped to clear the prop 2 or 3 times, but today we reached the top of the Wolverhampton flight unhindered. Eric moored up to give the prop a final check before we set off down the 21.
Lock landing Wolverhampton top lock
The day was looking increasingly promising.
1 down 20 to go
Eric and I work well as a team, I set the lock and open the gates, then go immediately go and set the next lock. Eric cruises in and empties it, opens the gates and hauls the boat out and cruises straight into the next awaiting lock, whilst i go back and close the gates on the previous lock. It’s efficient and quick, i might do twice as much walking but we share the physically tiring workload.
Half way down
And with the warmth of the autumnal sunshine there were lot of people out walking.
A good way to spend a sunday afternoon
Some offered to lend a hand and every now and then someone shows a real interest. They might think we are brightening their day, but it gives us such a boost to be able to share a bit of privilage. Occasionally we like to say thankyou with an invitation to step onto the back deck.
Two happy blokes
We almost flew down the flight, in just over 3 ½hours. The Wolverhampton flight is a pretty and very pleasant flight. We would happily do it again, and our love of cruising has been restored.
Almost there
When we got to the bottom we turned right and moored on the Staffs and Worcester, at Autherley junction. Where we were joined by fellow bloggers Mick and Pip on NB Oleana.
What happened to summer, we got thwarted by a heatwave and a drought, but it wasnt all bad.
Stanthorne Woods, Middlewich
When I left you, we were heading up to Chester, Eric had a business trip so I had a fortnight to explore that beautiful city on my own. As usual I spent half my time in the cathedral listening to heavenly music, and the other half walking around the walls. This visit I decided it was time to climb up the cathedral and do the tower tour. And as I expected the views were magnificent.
The looking towards Wales from Chester Cathedral
When Eric returned to Firecrest we set off south again. But the writing was on the walls or should I say water, or lack of it. Even in June we were finding mooring difficult because the water levels were dropping. But we had a family wedding to attend on the south coast so whilst we had a holiday in Sussex, Firecrest had a holiday in a marina.
A day worth celebratingAnd Eric and I got to dance at the party
On our return we reassed our cruising plans. We had planned a route that would take us onto canals we hadn’t cruised before, up the Wolverhampton flight, through Birmingham and down the Tardebigge flight, and through Droitwich towards Worcestershire and we’d return towards the east of England in the autumn after coming up the Avon. But dire warnings of the summer being worse than that of ’76 and restrictions already being impossed, we knew we had to plan to cruise to a place of safety.
The combination of the extreme heat and the uncertainties ahead of us zapped the enthusiasm for cruising. CRT’s reluctance to publish cruising restrictions, in order to protect the hire industry is understandable, but when its staring you in the face that the resevoirs are empty, it makes it very difficult for liveaboards. We knew we wanted to overwinter in the east of England, but how were we going to get there. The Atherstone flight was bound to be closed but for how long and could we get ahead of a closure. And for that matter would we find enough water on the other side. After last summer’s lockdown, we decided to cut our losses. we knew there was a safe space in Fazeley that was deep enough for Firecrest to moor at. But we had to time our arrival, such that we didnt fall foul of any of the standard mooring restrictions, and maintain a secondary plan just in case lockdown didnt happen.
Peel’s Wharf, Fazeley
We made it, this may look like an identical photo to last summer, it probably is, we were in exactly the same spot. Even the lovely people we had met last year came out to greet us. Now we just had to hold our own amd wait for CRT admit defeat. Which they did, only instead of lifting all the mooring restrictions like they’d done last year, they only lifted the 14 day restriction, meaning anyone on a 2 or 7 day visitor mooring had to respect them. And guess what, even though theres no signage this location turns out to be a 7 day mooring. We entered a discussion with CRT explaining our deep draft and they begrudging gave us permission to stay. The mooring officer checking the boats was completely understanding and gave us his permission to stay. How come such a peaceful way of life can become so stressful. But once we’d got the burocracy out of the way, we settled down to bake in the sunshine. Eric was busy working so I decided to jump ship and return home. The bricks and mortar isnt such a bad place to be, I dont get to enjoy misty mornings but I often get a fabulous sun set.
The view from the back garden
And the bird life was somewhat unexpected when I found an interloper had moved into the neighbourhood.
Meet Rio, we’re told he had escaped from the local equestrian center, although I cant imagine trying to saddle up.
And our plans to celebrate our Ruby wedding anniversary in style was someone postponed in favour of an autumnal party yet to be announced- but didnt we make a lovely couple in 1986.
Ah, young and in love, and we havent changed a bit.
Back to today, I am back on board Firecrest, and we are cruising again. We’ve escaped from Fazeley and we are going to attempt a cruising route that we’ve not done before.
Somewhere on the Staffs and Worcester
We are loving being able to cruise again. Our love of this lifestyle is not diminished.
above the Radford Bank, Stafford
The summer wasn’t a write off, we didn’t get to to do the things we set out to do, but we spent more time with friends and family. And we took the opportunity to go places by road instead of water.
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.
