Autumn Tints Cruise 2022 Ep 2

 Monday 7th November - Greensforge Lock to Bratch Visitor Moorings

We began our cruise by locking up through Greensforge Lock and stopping to top up with water and empty rubbish at the services.  A very gentle cruise then through Swindon and the Botterham Staircase locks.  All very quiet with no boats moving at all.  This is the house at Bumble Hole Lock, still looking in need of some TLC, but with some signs of habitation now.

This is Dave approaching The Bratch locks, I am working these locks for the first time, very exciting!  The Bratch Locks look like they should be a staircase lock, but are in fact three separate locks with very short pounds between each lock.  These pounds are filled and emptied from side pounds along side the locks.  

The procedure for using these locks is quite daunting, but straightforward when you understand what is happening.  In this picture you can see the blue paddles and above the red paddles.  You open the blue paddles first and this uses the water from the side pound and then the red paddles which fills from the lock above.  Fascinating to watch these tiny pounds filling and emptying with water!  

We moored above the locks for the night and after lunch went for a walk along the canal to Awbridge Lock and back along the disused railway, unfortunately the station cafe was closed so no sweet treats to keep us going.  

Throughout the evening and in to the night the wind got up and we were being buffeted by winds in excess of 30mph, noisy and a little scary, but we survived and no damage sustained!  

4 miles, 10 locks, 3hrs 18mins.

Tuesday 8th November - Bratch Visitor Moorings to Compton Bridge Moorings.

A short cruise today to Compton, in between the showers. Our first lock was Awbridge Lock and I was fascinated by these tiny snails working their way up the side of the lock! 

As we came round towards the Wightwick Locks we could see Wightwick Manor on the hill marked with the blue circle.  Wightwick Manor is owned by the National Trust because  in 1937 Geoffrey Mander, a local paint manufacturer and Liberal MP, did something remarkable – he persuaded the National Trust to accept a house for the nation that was just 50 years old. Having given the house to the Trust, Geoffrey and his second wife Rosalie became its live-in curators, opening the house to the public and adding to its contents, in particular a remarkable collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Marie Spartali Stillman, Elizabeth Siddal and many others. The collection now forms one of the largest public collections of work by female artists in Britain.

Toby the boat dog, watching from the stern, wondering what Dave is doing? 

Our last lock of the day, and we pass a boat, in fact today has been fairly busy with passing 4 boats on the move!  

We moored up below Compton Lock and later in the afternoon went for a walk through the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve, some of the time following the line of the same disused railway as we walked yesterday.  It is the old Great Western Railway line which opened in 1925, but passenger trains only lasted 7 years.

4 miles, 5 locks, 2 hrs 18mins.

Wednesday 9th November - Compton Visitor Moorings to Gailey Visitor Moorings

A pleasant start to the day with sunshine and light winds.  This is us coming under the bridge heading for Compton Lock, another photo with good reflections. Apart from this lock, there are no more locks for today, so Dave drove the boat whilst I took the opportunity to give the inside of the boat a good clean out.  

This is the junction with the Birmingham Canal Navigation and the 21 locks leading up to Wolverhampton.  Unfortunately they are closed today due to vandalism on the flight. The reflection shows how calm the weather is today, a super photo. 

As we approach Gailey where are going to moor overnight, we pass through a chemical site, there is a zone of 200m where you are not allowed to moor or stop even if you hear an alarm and the smell is most unpleasant!  

In the evening we met up with Anne and Steve for a delicious meal at their local The Fieldhouse, a lovely evening and many thanks to Steve for driving us to and from our mooring at Gailey.

10.25 miles, 1 lock, 3hrs 42mins

Thursday 10th November - Gailey to Stafford Boat Club

A very grey start to the day, we made an early start and pulled in at the services beside Gailey Roundhouse to dispose of rubbish and fill up with water.  The Roundhouse was originally a toll keepers office but is now a residence with a canal shop during the season.  Unfortunately it was closed yesterday and today.  The bridge beside the Roundhouse carries the A5, Watling Street over the canal and is very busy! 

A photo showing the grey skies and the strength of the wind, no hovering in front of a lock, we had to come into the side and hold the boat with a rope, then a scramble to get the boat in to the lock without bashing the sides! 

This is Teddesley Wharf where our boatbuilders, Bourne Boats, relocated to after we were launched in 2015.  It appears they are now trading under the name Midway Boats.  We did see Wayne and Daniel as we cruised past and got a cheery wave from them both.

We continued on to below Deptmore Lock and moored up for the night.

7 miles, 10 locks, 5hrs 24mins

Friday 11th November - Stafford Boat Club to Great Haywood

A lovely start to the day and a gentle cruise to the end of the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal at Great Haywood.  Alongside the canal runs Radford Meadows. The Meadows form part of the River Penk floodplain, just one of a number of watercourses that converge in and around Stafford, before joining the River Trent near Shugborough. The site’s best-kept secret is one of England’s rarest tree species, the native Black Poplar. This tree is a true relic of the floodplain woodland that once dominated lowland England. 

Not very clear, but the duck in the middle is a Mandarin Duck, this beautiful duck was introduced from the Far East, where it can still be found in China, Japan, Korea and parts of Russia. It escaped, or was deliberately released, from captivity in the UK. Mandarin ducks are actually quite shy birds, often hiding beneath overhanging willows and usually only forming small flocks.

This is Tixall Lock, the only lock of the day and bringing us down towards the end of the canal…

…and the Gatehouse and Tixall Wide.  Tixall Gatehouse is a 16th-century gatehouse situated at Tixall, near Stafford, Staffordshire and is all that remains of Tixall Hall which was demolished in 1927. The gatehouse is a Grade I listed building. Tixall was used as a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots for two weeks in 1586.  It is now owned by the Landmark trust and you can rent it as a holiday home.

Approaching the end of the canal, we will turn right and moor up on the Trent and Mersey Canal.  There is an Anglo-Welsh boat hire on the left and a delightful farm shop on the other side of the canal.

After mooring we went for a walk across Essex Bridge, a Grade I listed packhorse bridge over the River Trent near Great Haywood, Staffordshire.  Crossing the River Trent one hundred yards downstream of the junction with the River Sow, it was built in 1550 by the then Earl of Essex for Queen Elizabeth I so that when she visited the estate she could go hunting in the woodland nearby. It is close to Shugborough Hall. It is now the longest remaining packhorse bridge in England with 14 of its original 40 span arches left.

Shugborough Hall is now owned by the National Trust and there is a 10 year plan to renovate parts of the estate.  Currently work is being carried out on some of the surrounding yew trees. Shugborough Hall is an elegant country house built in 1695 on the remains of a moated medieval bishop's palace and an early 17th-century house. The house was remodelled in 1760 and again in the late 18th century.

We left Toby on the boat and went to the Canalside Tearoom for a delicious afternoon tea, a wonderful selection of savouries, sandwiches, cakes and of course scones and cream.  We came home with doggy bags of the cakes we couldn’t manage to eat there and then!  

Following a conversation with a lady trader on a boat ahead of us, we discovered that there is a closure on the Coventry Canal at Streethay Wharf, apparently an unknown culvert beneath the canal has collapsed and rendered the canal closed until late November, meaning that we will need to rethink our cruise plans from here.  Disappointing but good that we found out sooner rather than later!  

6 miles, 1 locks, 2hrs 18mins

Saturday 12th November - Great Haywood

Today we have decided to have a day replanning, and catching up with chores on the boat.  Shopping in the Canalside Farm shop, visiting the post office and walking Toby.

Sunday 13th November - Great Haywood to Roseford Bridge

Today we have decided to abandon our plans due to the closure at Streethay, and are going to head back down the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal.  This involved reversing the boat to the junction as it isn’t wide enough to turn the boat round. 

This is Tixall Wide, a large body of water, probably created when the canal was dug in order to improve the vista from Tixall Hall.  I found this poem written by the Staffordshire Poet Laureate.

Tixall Wide

by Jo Bell

Staffordshire and Worcester Canal

The cut is working water. Straightened,
straitened, boxed and sluiced; contained
and discontent. Worrying at banks,
whitening the heels of boats.

All day it’s run from lock to weir, from weir
to pound. It earns its rest by evening,
dawdles through a leaking lock;
puts up a weary bubble, iris-cool.

Now it kicks off muddy boots;
a worker done with work.
It breathes out ozone, laundry-sweet
and ruffles sedge and vetch,

idly spins a swan. What it does
is not so simple as stilling the mind.

This is the aqueduct over the River Sow, the river runs towards Shugborough Hall and joins with the River Trent at the Essex Bridge we walked over on Friday.

We are just coming under the bridge and into Tixall Lock, just a cute picture! 

Loved the train in the background of this picture, bet the children love to come and play here! 

This is the Stafford Riverway Link, a new name for the old Stafford Branch Canal or River Sow Navigation which formerly linked the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal at Baswich with the town centre of Stafford.  The restoration project aims to rebuild this link for community benefit.  The link consisted of a short section of canal branching off the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal near St Thomas Bridge 101 leading via a basin and an aqueduct over a drainage channel into a lock down into the River Sow.  From here the river course was straightened and made navigable for 1½ miles to its terminus at a basin near Green Bridge in Stafford.

We then locked up through Deptmore Lock and moored near Roseford Bridge for the night.

6.25 miles, 2 locks, 2hrs 42mins