Water Snake ?

We spotted this at a lock recently……

As soon as it saw me it turned tail and swam away :

 

 

 

Around 3 – 4 feet in length ! 

Turns out it’s a grass snake, and they’re apparently very profficient swimmers !

 

 

 

Up on The Cloud

I sometimes get accused of having my head in the clouds, however today we were on top of The Cloud.

It’s a prominent hill on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and is only a mile or so from the Macclesfield Canal where we are now.

At 1126 ft above sea level, there are spectacular 360 degree views from the top – over 30 miles in any direction – well worth the effort of climbing. I took a couple of panoramic 180 degree pictures looking out over Cheshire on one side (towards Liverpool), and Staffordshire on the other :

Cheshire

Staffordshire

A quick calculation shows the land area that can be seen is over 2500 sq miles !

The summit is made up of Chatsworth Grit – a form of gritsone formed around 300 million years ago. Graffiti is something that’s happened over many centuries, and the boulders on the summit have their fair share of carefully carved records of people and dates visited ……

1922

1953 (and 1958 !)

Today’s youngsters want instant gratification, without being prepared to put in much effort ……

I suppose they made the effort of carrying the paint spray can up there with them !

This morning, the rain came and the cloud base dropped right down – ‘The Cloud’ became well disguised !

Where’s it gone ?

 

 

Congleton

Overnight Thurs and Fri just north of Congleton

Our house is around eight miles from Congleton, however other than driving through the outskirts, which aren’t very inspiring, we’ve never bothered to penetrate the town further.

Well, travelling by boat we see it from a canal’s perspective, and the centre of the town has some really nice feature buildings. The canal encounters one the roads in to Congleton at an aqueduct, and from the water it doesn’t seem to stand out, however from the road below it’s a rather attractive 200 year old feature, and still in great condition.

On the aqueduct

….from below.

We walked in to the town for some shopping and the first building to catch our eye was the Town Hall built in 1866 :

We came across a reference to bear-baiting, and a little bit of research revealed that Congleton had become notorious in the 1620s when bear-baiting was a popular sport.  The original bear was a bit tame, and the income from the spectacle wasn’t great, and so the town lacked the money to pay for a new, more aggressive bear from the proceeds. By all accounts, they had to use money saved to buy a bible and then replenished the fund with the income from the increased number of spectators !

Other buildings dating from the 17th and 18th centuries are mostly pubs or hotels now, but still worthy of recording in our view ……

Now a Wetherspoons

In Little Street

Back at the canal side it’s good to see the integration of an old mill and warehouses into a newer development…

 

The Approach to Stoke …..

We’ve travelled through Stoke and are now heading up the Macclesfield Canal, en route to Manchester

In 1939, Tom Rolt and his wife Angela spent several months on a boat named Cressy, travelling around the Midlands canals. Tom was an aero engineer, however also an accomplished writer, and in 1944 he managed to publish an account of the journey in his book ‘Narrow Boat’.

At the time, there were still a few working boats on the system and the book both describes the trials and tribulations of the boat families, as well as his impressions of the waterways themselves. Part of the journey took them on the Trent & Mersey Canal through Stoke, and on page 121 Tom states : “The approach to Stoke presented a scene of utter desolation and ruin..”.

Well that seemed a bit harsh.  So, let’s have a look at how Stoke presents itself to the canal visitor nowadays…..

 

Modern art

Railway works

Information signage

 

Overgrown cemetery

Practice area

Prices teapot works

Newport pottery

Finally we get to Harecastle Tunnel (which has sunk in the middle of its 1.75 mile length – hence the height gauge at the entrance)….

….only to find at the other end of which, the canal turns a mullagatawney soup colour !

So readers – do you feel an urge to visit Stoke by canal ?

…….. by the way, we live in Stoke !

 

 

 

Heritage

Our apologies for not posting blogs over the last few days, however we’ve been on the Caldon Canal in the Staffordshire Moorlands – it’s like going back into the past before the internet and WiFi had been invented !

Where the Caldon loses out on communication connectivity, it gains bucket loads in industrial archeology – we love it !  The canal was opened  in 1779, and runs for 18 miles from Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent to Froghall, deep in the valley of the River Churnet south east of the town of Leek. It’s purpose was to transport limestone, quarried at Cauldon Low in the Peak District, as well as Ironstone from the Churnet Valley. The canal ends at the village of Froghall, which sits astride the River Churnet, and the final three miles from the limestone quarry were served by an inclined tramway.

 

The canal leaves the Trent & Mersey Canal at Etruria, famous in Stoke as the location of Josiah Wedgewood’s pottery works, so as the canal passed through Hanley from Etruria, it was no surprise to come across a couple of ‘bottle kilns’ – synomynous with the potteries. There were at one time around 2000 bottle kilns in Stoke, and now just 47 survive – all protected.

The two Johnsons bottle kilns, the factory now long gone, but more recently replaced by stylish apartments

Next up was the Stockton Brook pumping station. It was built by the Staffordshire Potteries Water Company in 1884 to help provide additional water to Stoke with its rapidly expanding population, and housed two horizontal compound tandem “Davey” differential steam engines. More recently, the current owners Severn Trent Water sold it (minus the original engines), and it awaits rejuvenation.

Stockton Brook pumping station -awaiting a bit of TLC

At a place called Endon, we passed a sign in the hedge indicating the mooring of a 70ft narrowboat called Lazy Days.  Now if it hadn’t have been for that boat, we may well not have ever moved to the Midlands.  Back in 2008 it was for sale, and was the sole boat in a small boat hire company.  We travelled up from the south coast one weekend, had a look, talked to the owners of the business who were selling, and arranged a survey. Ultimately we felt the boat wasn’t right, but it did sow the seed of a business plan to set up our own one-boat hire company – ‘Canal Boat Cruising’. For more details check our ‘Who are we’ page !

Not sure if ‘Lazy Days’ was still based there – the sign looks a bit sad !

If you look at the map above, a short arm to Leek joins the main line. It was built in the mid 1800s ostensibly to supply canal water from Rudyard Lake near Leek, to the main Trent & Mersey Canal.   The meeting of the waterways is one of the most attactively on the entire system….

Hazlehurst Junction

One of our overnight stops was at Cheddleton, and right by the canal was a flint mill. Both bone and flint were added to china clay by the potteries in Stoke, to create different effects with their ceramics. The River Churnet provided sufficient power to run two watermills, side by side. Originally one was a fulling mill, and the second a corn mill, however with the growth in the potteries industry, both mills were adapted to flint. The south mill subsequently had a Robey steam engine installed in 1927. The mill is maintained by a charity.

Cheddleton Flint Mill showing one of the (still working) water wheels

 

Horizontal Robey steam engine

Despite the savage cuts in the rail network by Dr Beeching in the 1960s, it was pleasing to come across a track – unused at present,  but still in place…..

This is just outside Cheddleton

Further along the the Churnet Valley, the railway has been restored,  and both steam and diesel trains run at weekends….

Here’s ‘HOTSPUR’ passing us one lunchtime

 

Progress along the winding canal is slow, but who wants to rush when this is all around you ?….

 

On the way to Froghall, this cute little bridge has to be negotiated – it’s shape would not be out of place in a church ! It’s called ‘Cherry Eye Bridge’, apparently named as it was a route to a local ironstone mine known as Cherry Eye Mine due to the effect on the miners there ! The mine closed in 1923.

Cherry Eye Bridge

 

The Churnet Valley Railway runs from Cheddleton to Froghall, with a station midway along at Consall,  right next to the canal. In fact the platform and waiting room overhang !  It has all been restored beautifully.

Consall Station waiting room

 

Most narrowboats arriving at Froghall can’t quite get to the end – there’s a very low tunnel to negotiate first, and nine out of ten boats visiting just won’t fit !  We did, though it was a pretty tight squeeze, even with everything removed from the roof of the boat.

Froghall tunnel – no room to stand up

Once through, one last lock drops you into a fantastic little basin with mooring pontoons all ready to tie up to. We stayed for two nights entirely on our own – no Internet, no phone signal,  no TV signal.  About as isolated as you can get on the canal system, and set in the gorgeous Churnet Valley.

Our private mooring !

 

Bridges

Tonight we’ve stopped at the village of Barlaston, just south of Stoke. As the crow (or duck, considering we’re on a canal) flies, we’re about seven miles from our house.

We’ve passed through Stone today, having moored overnight last night near to Aston Marina where we kept Brutus for a year or so. Of all the marinas we’ve moored at over the years, this is still our favourite – good facilities, and friendly staff.  Ian and Jane on Esio Trot, who we spent a couple of great evenings with, have gone on ahead of us (we tend to travel slowly !).

The town of Stone has a long history, much of which pre-dates the canal (opened in 1777) by several centuries, and was originally where the head quarters of the Trent and Mersey Canal Company was located. When the canal was bought by the Staffordshire Railway Co, the HQ was closed and became a chocolate factory !  – unfortunately long gone now. Two nights ago we were moored at Little Haywood as we remembered a lovely walk for the dogs on Cannock Chase nearby, starting at a place called Seven Springs.

Walking on Cannock Chase

Along this stretch of canal are a number of different bridges – well, they’re a bit different from the ‘standard’ brick accommodation bridges which are to be seen on almost all canals on the system.

Essex Bridge – driveway to Shugborough Hall

 

Great Haywood Junction bridge

 

So called ‘Fancy Bridge’

 

A split bridge at a lock tail – the gap was to allow the tow rope to pass through, as horses used to pull boats into or out of the lock

 

By way of contrast, rather than overhead rather more in the ‘depths of the underworld’ ! – lock 95 on the Stone flight.

There used to be two breweries at Stone – Joules and Bents. Joules is now an engineering works, whereas part of the original Bents has been reopened as the Lymehouse micro brewery.

 

What’s the connection ?

Here are three photos – what’s the connection between them ?

MIRROR DINGHIES

 

1969 MG MIDGET

 

ESIO TROT – a famous story by Roald Dhal

Well, back when I was mis-spending my youth, my parents bought me what was at the time the love of my life – a second hand Mirror Dinghy. I was around 13 years old at the time, and had always wanted to go boating (nothing much changed there then !).

These little dinghies were ideal introductory boats to sailing, with eventual numbers in many tens of thousands. They were virtually all built from kits in garages at home.  There were a number at the sailing club closest to us on the south coast, and one in particular that my sister and I regularly used to race against was built by a skilled home builder, a Mr Freeman, for his son Ian.  Ian became one of my closest friends both at the sailing club, and all through our school years.  We got into the odd scrape, discovered alcohol and girls, and at the age of 18 set off on life’s adventures – me into the Merchant Navy, and Ian on to a successful career in finance.  I gave my Mirror Dinghy away.

Move on around twenty years or so and our paths briefly crossed again. By that time we were both Dads and both living near Fareham in Hampshire, and I was looking for a small sailing dinghy to introduce my young son Greg, then aged about six.  Ian was finally selling his Mirror dinghy, so I bought it. Life moved on again, and after two or three years I sold the boat, and to all intents and purposes lost touch with Ian.

So, move on yet another twenty years, by which time Deb and I are living near Stoke-on-Trent.

For many years I’d had a hankering for an MG Midget, and in 2013 I finally persuaded Deb it would be a good idea to buy one (as an investment of course !). After looking at a few, a Barnsley dealer’s advert for a green one appeared to be worth investigating. I drove over to Yorkshire and sure enough it was in great condition. The previous owner had apparently looked after it, but couldn’t really justify the few miles that it was used each year, and sold it to the dealer in Barnsley  – they’d collected it on a trailer. I was given the opportunity of checking through the car paperwork, and guess what – that’s right, the previous owner was an Ian Freeman, who lived near Fareham in Hampshire !

Now EsioTrot, the Ronald Dhal story about Tortoises (among other things) …… well I found Ian’s phone number among the Midget’s paperwork so of course had to phone him up. We chatted for a while before Ian announced they were having a canal boat built for them, and they were going to name it Esio Trot (tortoise spelt backwards – narrow boats move slowly !).  We arranged to meet up and have a look at Ian and his wife Jane’s boat although it hadn’t at that point been fitted out or even painted.

A couple of days ago our paths crossed again – this time in Burton-on-Trent on the Trent & Mersey Canal. Esio Trot is all finished, and here she is in all her glory – a really super boat……

We’ve spent the last two nights remeniscing over old times (several bottles of wine consumed!), and here we all are in Esio Trot’s saloon …..