Ingestre (what a lot of baking)

Caught in a rainbow at Yard lock, Stone

I mentioned that Stoke’s out-of-town developments at Sideway seemed to be getting further out of town each time we come through the city.  I didn’t get a picture of where we were moored at Sideway for the last blog entry as it was pitch black when we arrived; here’s one from Sunday morning instead:

Sunday morning at Sideway with the latest warehouse unit not far away

As Buddy and I had brought the boat down the five Stoke locks whilst Karen was away at the end of last week, we had less to do on Sunday.  We cruised about a mile to Hem Street where we moored up and Karen and I walked to the supermarket to do the weekly shopping, leaving Buddy home alone on the boat.

After packing the shopping away, I headed off for Stone while Karen and Buddy had a run.  It wasn’t long until I got to Trentham lock which is really where the Potteries end.  Wedgwood built a factory here, at Burlaston, in 1940 moving out of Etruria, home of the Wedgwood estate since 1770.  Josiah Wedgwood was one of the philanthropic employers of the time; the Wedgewood estate contained houses for 300 of his employees.

The current Wedgwood factory from the canal

Waiting for Trentham lock to fill

When single handing, the boat should always have a line loosely attached to a bollard at the side of the lock (even if not single-handing too).  This means you can have some control over the boat when it is at the bottom of the lock and you are at the top operating the lock mechanisms.  For some reason I forgot this and when the lock was empty, I couldn’t get back down to it as there was no ladder close enough to the boat.  If I had had a line up it would be a simple matter of pulling the boat back ☹

Hmmm.  I seem to have lost our boat

With a lot of locks, boats start drifting backwards when the lock gates are ready to open.  I was fortunate that this was the case with this lock and I had to wait patiently until the boat drifted back far enough.  If it hadn’t then I would have had to refill the lock and start all over again, with a line of course 😉

I picked Karen and Buddy up outside the Plume of Feathers, the full title on the pub signage is The Plume Of Feathers With Neil Morrissey.  He and a business associate have owned the pub for many years and they have recently opened another in Staffordhire.  Although we have been, we have never seen him but I have drunk the Morrissey Blonde.

Karen had run down to Stone and back which was where we wanted to end up in the boat by the end of the day.  We stopped at the top of the four locks at Meaford for lunch which was well timed as Judith & Nigel arrived before we set off down the flight.

We stayed moored at the top of the flight for a couple of hours and were surprised that two boats came up the flight whilst we were there.  After Judith & Nigel left, we decided to go down the flight and moor at the bottom as that was what we needed to do to keep on plan.

Once again it was nearly dark by the time we moored up but at least it was still dry.

In Meaford bottom lock

Monday dawned cloudy and I set off for Stone while Karen got the evening meal set in the slow cooker and then spent a while indoors baking.

Arriving in Stone – as the sign says, the birthplace of the Trent & Mersey canal

As I approached the top lock, the clouds started rolling away and by the time I had the lock set and the boat going down, the sun was out, and it promised to be another fine day.

Going down Stone top lock

After going through the second lock I pulled in at the boat yard where I had arranged to pick up a new fan belt.  One of our belts (the domestic battery bank belt) had snapped when we were coming down the Wigan flight but fortunately, we carry a spare.  Unlike our starter battery/water pump belt the domestic one is not designed like a car fan belt and consequently costs a relative fortune ☹

For those of you who have been through or walked along the Stone locks will know that the second lock exit goes under a main road.  It has a separate tunnel for the towing horses, but this was closed today as repairs were being undertaken which meant crossing the main road with Buddy in tow a few times.  Firstly to check if there was a boat coming up, and then to close up the lock once we were parked up.

Having left the boatyard which is at the end of the rainbow

When I was doing the third lock, the rainbow was fully across the sky with the boat in the middle of it as shown in the photo at the top.

I moored up after the third lock as Karen had finished baking and wanted to pop into town to pick up a few things we couldn’t get yesterday at Hem Hill. This left me to go down the bottom lock (Star lock) to fill up with water and wait for Karen to return.

It was all timed perfectly and I was just putting the hose away when Karen got back so we set off straight away.  Karen and Buddy walked along the towpath and we met up at Aston lock which marks the half way point of the Trent & Mersey canal.

The milepost shows 46 miles to Shardlow and 46 to Preston Brook

After another mile or so we stopped at the hamlet of Burston for lunch and went for a little walk afterwards and found a tired looking VR box just outside of Burston by the Greyhound pub.

Moored for lunch with the clouds rolling in again

We carried on after our walk and ended up at Ingestre for the night.  Once again it was pretty dark, and we were cruising with the tunnel light on. 

Mooring up at Ingestre on Monday evening (another of Les Heath’s favourites)

Even though we are out in the middle of nowhere it’s a 48hour mooring complete with mooring rings for a couple of boats.  Of course, at this time of year, the restriction is lifted, and it reverts to 14 days. We can’t take advantage as we are still on a mission for a couple more weeks.

Not so much progress the last two days (14 miles and 14 locks) as we did some unplanned cruising in Stoke when Karen was away, but we’re still on target.  Only 118 miles and 74 locks to go to get to Aylesbury by the 1^st December.  More boats on the move at the moment though, four on Sunday and two on Monday.