Seyella's Journey

 We’ve dropped down through Burton Upon Trent today, leaving the last of the narrow locks behind. From here to the Trent below Shardlow we’ve 6 wide locks to negotiate. Brindley’s decision to build this eastern end of the navigation caused major consternation amongst the proprietors of the Trent Navigation Company. Since 1699 and the original work to make the river navigable up to Burton Upon Trent it had spent a considerable sum upgrading and maintaining the route.

Then along comes this upstart with his new-fangled ideas of a man-made waterway from the Trent to the Mersey, and he was building this end to broad dimensions in direct competition with their own navigation.

They had every reason to be worried, trade shifted rapidly to the reliable canal that didn’t run shallow in the summer and in flood in the winter. Even a link from warehouses on the river up through the town to the new canal didn’t reverse the decline in trade and the river route soon fell into decay.

Anyway, back to the present. We left our mooring above Woodend Lock yesterday morning. The intention was to make an early start to get ahead of the inevitable queues at Fradley, but oversleeping put paid to that. By the time we were ready to roll there were three boats waiting ahead of us to drop down Woodend.

Down Woodend Lock

There was a volunteer working though, so he saw them through pretty quickly. In fact there were CRT volunteers on all the Fradley Locks bar the last, Hunts Lock. The only noticeable delay was at Keepers Lock where boats coming off the Coventry Canal were joining the traffic on the T&M.

The edge of Fradley Wood cleared in preparation for HS2…

Fradley Junction

We cruised along the mile or so to Alrewas, passing the new marina under construction at Common Lock, then into the village. A short stop for a visit up to the Co-op, then down Alrewas Lock and onto the river section to Wychnor.

New marina construction coming on

Alrewas Lock

Alrewas river section

 

We stopped before Wychnor Lock on a quiet spot just short of the lock.

We were joined by a couple of other boats a little later though.

This morning we were off early, having learned a lesson yesterday. In fact we didn’t see another boat on the move until we got to Barnton Lock.

Wychnor Lock

 

It was still quiet, surprisingly so. We had a short wait for one down and one up at Branston Lock, then pushed on into Burton.

Narrow Bridge 36

Chocolate box setting of Tattenhill Lock

 

Massive development going on at Branston

At one time no-one would think of mooring on the towpath near Shobnall, now it’s almost nose to tail boats. Only two on the offside moorings on the playing fields.

Quiet Shobnall Fields

 

We’d caught up with another boat that pulled out ahead of us, so had another short pause at Dallow Lock before we dropped down the shallow chamber, the last of the narrow locks when heading this way.

By this time the overcast day had turned a bit damp. Not really rain, just short spells of drizzly stuff. We were thinking of pushing through to Willington, but with a slow boat in front and darkening skies above we decided to pull in not long after clearing the last of the suburbs.

We’ve stopped here before, it’s a pleasant spot with a wide dry towpath, but there’s a bit of traffic noise from the busy A38.

Tomorrow we’ll be on the move again early (I hope). There’s six broad locks and 16 miles between here and where we meet the Soar, and I’d like to make a good dent into that.

Locks 14, miles 11½ (2 days)