Adderley and Audlem



Our plan for Friday was to go down the five locks at Adderley and then have a look around the village.  After lunch we would then descend the 15 locks at Audlem taking us into Cheshire.  

At Adderley top lock was an honesty stall set up by a local farmer so we took advantage of bacon, sausages and a pork pie.

At one point a cow was staring at us from the top of a bridge but we didn’t get a decent picture.

At one lock Karen found a stanking plank shed hidden in the bank.  The doors weren’t locked so she checked the contents.

I was reading about the Birmingham canals this morning and learnt that during World War II stanking planks were put in the canal every evening wherever there were plank grooves.  This ensured that if a bomb fell in a section of canal that only a small part would drain.

Every so often memorial benches sit by the canal – this one was rather sweet.

 












We moored for lunch by a bank of cowslips.

We attracted a herd of cows and Buddy started barking as he was frightened – he hardly ever barks so I tried to record him for our family Whatsup group.  For some reason the video worked but there was no sound so a bit pointless really.

Adderley is definitely a village we would consider retiring to in the future.  We went to visit the church as apparently the tower and side chapels etc. had been cut off so that the interior of the church is very small.  Unfortunately and surprisingly the doors were locked.  The churchyard was well tended.

A mounting block is also still in place.

We walked over a dismantled railway line…

…and chuckled at this sign as we wondered what sort of pets it referred to.

Five of the windows on the side of this house were painted on – the only other time we have seen this practice was in Brewood earlier in the week.

Before setting off for the afternoon Karen baked a Ginger cake and we prepared a meal together for the slow cooker.  The ginger cake recipe says to try not to eat any for 24 hours - but we couldn't try hard enough - it was lovely!

We then went down 11 of the 15 locks on Audlem flight and moored up for the night in Audlem.  We had a quick walk into the village and had a drink at The Shroppie Fly – the name given to the old trade boats on the Shropshire Union.

On the flight were two more honesty stalls - a cake one and a bantam egg one.  Although the cake stand had a "CCTV" sign on it.



Here are the five locks on the Adderley flight:



 


 And the first 11 of the 15 we went down on the Audlem flight:


 






 















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