River Trent to Newark

Over the past week I left the canals and joined the river Trent to cruise up through Nottingham to Newark.  While some narrow boaters are wary of rivers I enjoy them.  Tides and current need to be taken into account and weirs are to be avoided but it's so much easier to navigate the wide water.
Shortly after joining the river boats are diverted onto the Beeston and Nottingham canal which bypasses an unnavigable stretch.  The canal rejoins the river at Trent Bridge where the county cricket ground and both football clubs are within a mile of each other.

Trent Bridge - Nottingham

After a day or two in Nottingham it was good to get out into the countryside again and I spent a quiet night moored up at Gunthorpe lock on my own island.  Mr Bunbury looks very small against the much larger river locks.

On arrival at Newark, through Town lock, the castle stands proudly on the far bank.  The town has plenty of moorings so I'll spend a week or so here before moving on.  I'm expecting a visit from my good friend Mac & Helen Cook on Saturday.  Hopefully the weather will be better than the day we moved the boat from Skipton to Gargrave in a gale.

After the weekend I'll head up onto the tidal Trent to join the Chesterfield canal.  This is a new canal to me which I'm looking forward to exploring before heading back southwards.

Along the Trent & Mersey

I suffered a bit of a setback last week by tearing something in my back while trying to split a large log with a hand axe - don't try this at home it hurts. As I could hardly stand let alone walk I managed a brief hobble to the chemist where I stocked up on strong painkillers and heat pads. After a week the pain had reduced from agony to severe so I decided to visit a chiropractor last Thursday to see if I had done any serious damage.  After a detailed inspection she confirmed it was muscular and suggested manipulation could help.  After an hour on the modern equivalent of the rack I did leave feeling better if a little sore. However, that evening my back went into spasm and the pain was worse than the initial injury.  Thankfully, after a long night I woke to find the pain had once again reduced to severe.  It has been gradually improving daily since. 

Anyway, back to the boat. After leaving Penkridge I joined the Trent and Mersey canal at Heywood Junction near Stafford and headed south east along a very pretty stretch of canal.  When the canals were built skilled workmen were required and often the canal companies would provide housing for these artisans.  This is a typical row of such cottages, the first of which is named Stone Masons cottage thus identifying the occupant.  

The T&M canal has a unique narrow passage between narrow vertical rock sides.  This was originally a tunnel but became unsound so the roof was removed leaving the narrow cut.

The T&M is joined by the Coventry canal at Fradley Junction, home to the Swan pub which is one of the most popular landmarks on the network.

Leaving Fradley I'm now heading along the canal towards Shardlow where the canal joins the river Trent.  Along the way the discussed Derby canal leaves the T&M at Swarkestone.  Although closed in 1964 the towpath is still maintained as a footpath and the overgrown canal bed is still very clearly visible.

Stourport but no further

My plan to visit Worcester has been thwarted by the weather.  I continued the last few miles of the Staffs & Worcs canal to Stourport yesterday to find that the river is in flood and running much to fast to safely navigate.

Stourport Junction

The local CaRT staff tell me that due to the amount of water coming down the river it's unlikely to be navigable for at least another week.

Clock Basin Stourport

I'm not to bothered about missing the trip down the Severn as it's not a particularly pretty river an I have been to Worcester before but it would have nice to catch up friends who live there. Such is life.

On to Kidderminster

Continuing my first trip along the lower Staffs & Worcs canal today I made the 10 miles down to Kidderminster where I'll spend a couple of days exploring between the rain showers.  The day started a little overcast but cleared up before turning to light rain in the afternoon.  The canal passes by Stourton where the canal of the same name branches off to the left and heads up into Birmingham.

This section of the canal passes through mainly open countryside with the occasional village along the way.  The canal falls gently through 11 locks fairly evenly spaced through the journey.  At one lock I noticed the lock cottage garden gates were a miniature version of canal gates.  What a great idea - they looked brilliant.

There are several areas where the canal has been cut into the sandstone leading to a few blind corners and requiring care not to scrape the boat. It was a little claustrophobic at times.

A highlight of the trip for me was finding a lock with a cave in the cliffside.  The cave is almost the length of the lock and has a low bench cut into the rock at the base.

It's not clear why the cave was built nor for what use.

Kidderminster lock is set below a large church offering a photo opportunity, shame it was raining.

New canal strange locks

I've spent the last two days making my way south from Penkridge on the Staffordshire and Worcester canal, another stretch of canal which is new to me.  The weather has been mostly dry with the odd shower and cold wind.  When the sun is out it's lovely and I'm enjoying exploring a new waterway and collecting a few more logs along the way. The chainsaw was a good investment and I guess I've already collected around £30 worth of free logs.

I've covered 21miles and 21 locks including the very unusual Bratch locks.  I've described before the two types of locks, normal locks which have gates at the top and bottom and a length of canal, called a pound, between each one.  The other is a staircase lock where the bottom gate of one lock is the top gate of the next.  These require side pounds to hold water released from the upper lock to fill the lower lock.  Bratch locks are a unique combination of the tow as they are a set of 3 individual locks but are separated by only a few feet.  In the photo below the boat is in the middle of the 3 locks and the top gate is visible in front of the bridge.  However the closed bottom gates of the upper lock can be seen through the bridge and there is only10 feet between the two. I believe these are the only locks of this configuration.  The locks also have a rather unusual octagonal lock keepers house.

A little further down is a pair of staircase locks with an unusual ornate cast iron footbridge.  It's the first I've seen one like this and finding these little gems of architecture is one of the joys of travelling the canals.

I expect to reach Kidderminster tomorrow where I'll spend a day or two before continuing on to join the river Severn at Stourport and heading on to Worcester by the middle of next week where I'm looking forward to catching up with some good friends. 

And I'll leave you with a little puzzle.  The canal towpath often switches sides and I've only just realised, after 5 years afloat, why this is. 

Back aboard

I had a great week in the IoM visiting my brother and his family.  The weather was a bit mixed but mainly dry.

View of the farm house and surrounding hill from the fields

As ever there was work to be done on the farm a I spent a couple of days helping Dave install 4 large mirrors in the outdoor arena which will let Wendy show horse riders their posture during lessons.  Watching the horses reactions was fun.  One of the more highly strung was not impressed and charged around the arena kicking both front and back legs in the air - not at the same time.  At the other extreme the pregnant Shetland, Ivy, simply looked at herself and kept peeping around the mirror looking for her reflection.

The next job was more fun as I was let loose in the hydraulic digger.  How hard can it be I thought and the answer is very.  Driving to the site was easy enough, just two levers which make the tracks move forward or back.  Both sticks forward to go in a straight line.  To turn left bring the left leaver to the centre to stop the track or, for turning on the spot pull it back all the way to have the left track going back and the right going forward.  To turn right do it the other way around. There are two joysticks to control the arm movement and the swivelling cab.  The left one operates the upper arm, forward and back, and swivels the cab, left and right.  The right controls larger the lower arm, forward and back again, and controls the bucket, left and right.  All very straight forward until you realise that to dig a level trench you need to move both arms at the same time to keep the bucket at the same depth and also adjust the bucket as it moves toward you to keep it level.  Once you have a bucket full then simply lift the arm, swivel to one side and then empty the bucket. Of course if like me you mix the controls and move the right hand one to the left it does not swivel the cab but empties the bucket back in the hole.

Dave tidying up my hole

After some practice I was managing quite well and made a reasonable job of it. I don't think I'm quite ready for Time Team just yet.

I did manage an afternoon off birdwatching with Brian Maddrell, a Manxman who Dave has known for many years and who shares my passion for photography and nature.  We spent a blustery afternoon wandering along the northern coastline where we could just make out the Scottish mainland less than 20 miles away.  I managed to catch a pair of Oyster Catchers in flight along with a flock of Sanderlings.

Having returned to the boat I've learnt that the lock repair which was stopping my progress eastward has been extended for a further week.  Rather than spending another week in Penkridge I'll head south through Kidderminster to Worcester for a few days.

Anderton Boat Lift

Well so much for my intention to update the blog more often - can't believe it's the end of Feb already.  To be honest I've not done a lot of travelling due to canal closures and cold wet weather. It's been more of a holding pattern around the north west.  I did have a trip down the amazing Anderton Boat lift onto the river Weaver where I spent a few days in Northwich before coming back up the lift.

The lift is an impressive piece of engineering and dominates the view as you round the bend on the river Weaver.  The lift is the taller section to the left of the white hut, the section to the right is the channel connecting to the canal 50 feet above the river.

It is even more impressive close up. I'm heading into the left chamber, where the guillotine gate is raised, you can see the gate on the right is closed as the caisson on that side is at the top of the lift.

This is the view from the bottom looking up. The right hand caisson, balanced on top of the 50' hydraulic ram, is on it's way down to counterbalance mine on the way up.

After returning to the canal I spent the next two weeks slowly making my way along the T&M canal to Middlewich where I joined the Shropshire Union or Shropie canal to make my way south to Wolverhampton.

Passing the famous Shroppie Fly pub - named after the fly boats which were manned by twin crews and travelled 24 hrs a day to carry express cargos.

The Shropie canal passes through deep sandstone cuttings and in places the water resembles tomato soup.  I believe this is due to minerals, largely iron ore, dissolving in the water.

One unique feature of the Shropie is the extremely high bridges where roads cross the narrow cutting.  This is one of my favourites with what must be the worlds shortest telegraph pole mounted in the bridge.

Having turned north east above Wolverhampton I'm now moored up in Penkridge near Stafford where  I'll leave the boat while I pop over to the Isle of Man on Saturday for a week with my brother.  

The last of the winter stoppages should be complete shortly after I return and I then plan to cross the country on the T&M canal and then head up the river Trent once again to join the Yorkshire navigations.  I did consider crossing the Rochdale or Huddersfield canals but to be honest they are extremely hard work single handed, 80 lock in 50 miles on the Rochdale, and aren't the prettiest canals. Instead I'll come up this way and then travel the Aire and Calder and Hebble navigations which are much easier.  Following a few weeks "up north" I shall begin to head south for the summer possible taking in the tidal Thames through central London before heading west on the Kennet and Avon.