Into Shardlow yesterday morning
When the T&M was first proposed, fearing for the future of the existing Trent Navigation, the Burton Boat Company tried to block the first 16 miles of canal that would run parallel to the river in competition to the river navigation. Having successfully defeated the opposition James Brindley then built the locks on this section to broad gauge, enabling barges to come up to the town from Derwent Mouth without having to use the sometimes treacherous river. A bit of spite, perhaps? Whatever the reason, this section of the navigation soon fell into disrepair and very little remains of the locks that once stood on the river.
So we’re left with six broad locks of steadily increasing depth as the canal rises from Sawley Cut to Horninglow Basin in Burton.
We came up the first off the river last Saturday, and we’ve ascended the remainder over the last two days.
Having filled with water below Shardlow Lock we waited for a pair of boats to come down then shared this, Aston and Weston Locks with the couple on Buccaneer.
Below Shardlow Lock
The broad and flat Trent valley
We lost our locking partners above Weston Lock, they were pulling over to wait for a visitor while we carried on to Swarkestone.
Arriving below Swarkestone Lock we had a shall we/shan’t we moment and decided to moor below the lock rather than above.
It was a fine afternoon after a sometimes cloudy day, but we had rain again overnight. Behind us both the Soar and the Trent are closed to navigation, with the flood gates shut.
Autumn is here…
A bright start today gave way to steadily increasing cloud, and we had some heavy showers later.
We took advantage of the empty lock left by a descending boat, passing the moorings at the Derby Canal junction and stopped to drop off rubbish at the old lengthsman’s cottage. Sadly, no recycling here so it all went in the same skip.
Looking back at Swarkestone Stop, with the narrows marking the site of the gauging lock and a crane alongside.
We chased a kingfisher along the cut up to Stenson Lock, but he always stayed fifty yards ahead…
The sky was looking a bit black as we approached Stenson.
Stenson Lock is the deepest of the broad locks, and at 12½ feet the deepest on the canal. And that black cloud decided to let go just as we went in. Five minutes of heavy rain, with Mags sheltering inside, and the sun came out again!
The sunshine didn’t last long, more clouds rolling in and it started to spit with rain again as we moored up just shy of Mercia Marina on the edge of Willington.
We’ll be here or hereabouts for the weekend now, heading into Burton early next week.
Locks 5, miles 11½
No comments:
Post a Comment