A long weekend at Tixall, and new friends.

We stretched the weekend to three days, being a bit suspicious of the grey clouds building around mid-morning yesterday. Justifiably, as it turned out. We had a couple of sharp, heavy hailstorms later.

Tixall Wide
And resident swan
But if we had moved, we may have missed our visitor. Ann, off NB Moore 2 Life, had walked down the towpath with dog Molly. We spent an hour chatting, and she headed back about 13:30. We’d not met before, but have now made a new friend.

Ann, Molly and Meg.

After an overnight frost, today was bright and sunny, and we set off around 10:30. Tixall Lock was 20 minutes away, and we were surprised to have another boat come up behind us as I was emptying the chamber for us. He was a solo boater, and, as we were pulling over in Milford anyway, I locked him through first, and sent him on his way.
BW have advised that the Trent and Soar are in flood (again)! So is the River Sow, seen as we crossed it on Brindley’s aqueduct.
A bit further on the towpath switches to the opposite side of the cut, crossing over Milford Turnover Bridge.
A pity the railway runs so close alongside the canal. It’s a very picturesque section along here. Still, the railway surveyors logically followed much the same route as the earlier canal surveyors, as they had the same criteria – A to B in as straight a line as possible, but avoiding steep gradients wherever possible.

Just past the bridge is Milford Wharf, a busy spot for long term moorers, and opposite was Moore 2 Life. We pulled in to meet Chas and of course for a brew, and enjoyed comparing notes on canal life. Check out their website - http://moore2life.blogspot.com. It's stuffed full with useful information. They are very experienced live-aboards, having been on the water since 2000. They’re turning around and heading back to Great Haywood. But they will be heading onto the Shroppie later, so we’ll no doubt meet up again in the next couple of months.

Ann, Chas and Moore 2 Life.
On the way again, we swung around to the south following the River Penk and avoiding Stafford, and a couple of miles saw us at Deptmore Lock.

Deep in thought at Deptmore Lock

It was getting on for 14:30, so we pulled in a little further along, with fields both sides.

Moored above Deptmore Lock
The M6 is only a mile or so to the west, and you can hear the traffic noise carried on the breeze. We’ll be a lot closer tomorrow, the other side of Penkridge.

Locks 2, miles 5½

Just around the corner….

A long walk with Meg across the park followed by breakfast took us till 11:00, when we untied and headed up Haywood Lock. Amy on Black Bryony met us at the lock, she’s moored just above waiting for mail.
Meeting her solved a problem for me; I was not looking forward to cutting those large lumps of tree with my old bushman saw. But she has (had!) an electric chainsaw that is surplus to requirements, so it was swapped for some of the wood. A satisfactory result all round!

After the lock we pulled onto the services next to the Anglo Welsh base, then, having done what we needed to, reversed back about 50 yards to turn under the bridge and onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

Onto the Staffs and Worcs
About a mile further on, just at the end of Tixall Wide, we pulled in. This will do for the weekend.

Tixall Wide

I got stuck into the wood, cutting the rounds into shorter sections, then splitting them to fit in the fire. Got through maybe half of them, will get the rest finished over the next couple of days.
So now we’re proper liveaboards, wood on the roof, and a chainsaw in the locker!
Looking at the picture coming under the bridge, I need to get this wood away. Mags took it as I steered. If that's all she can see, I'd better get cutting, or else build her a box to stand on!

We’ve decided on a plan, of sorts, for this year.

We’re heading down the Staffs and Worcs to Autherley, then making our way steadily up the Shropshire Union, all the way to the Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port. If we time it right, I’ll get a car for a long weekend to go to Liverpool for the ½ marathon there at the end of March, and to Yorkshire for Mags to have a routine check up.
Then South, either using the Shroppie or the Trent and Mersey, through Birmingham and using the Stratford Upon Avon Canal to link up with the Grand Union. From there on to Oxford for the middle of May, for the race there.
After that we’ll probably spend a couple of months on and around the Thames, before heading North again via the Grand Union from Brentford.
Mags’ son, Neil and wife Val are coming over from Canada again, so they’ll be joining us for a week or so in August/September. We’ll maybe pick them up in Manchester, go up the Ashton and the Huddersfield Narrow, to the Calder and Hebble and on towards Leeds, heading up the Leeds and Liverpool after we drop them off.

Should be interesting. Canal Planner reckons from here to Castlefield to pick up our guests is 519 locks and 686 miles! Still, we’ve 7 months to do it in….

Locks 1, miles 1¼. I reckon we may have to do a bit better than that…

Short Haul to Shugborough Hall…

It’s a lot warmer today, in fact quite mild. Bit of a breeze, though. We finished off yesterday’s truncated trip, tying up opposite Shugborough Hall, below Haywood Lock.

We passed the Boaters Christian Fellowship place at The Taft with NB MAID of OAK moored on the quay.

Maid of Oak
This is unusual in that it is a modern wooden boat, built by Bates Boatyard on the Aylesbury Arm of the GU.

Just 1 lock today, at Colwich. Aren’t we getting lazy! It was in our favour, so didn’t take more than 10 minutes to ascend. This is always a bottleneck in summer, but in the other direction. The Staffs and Worcester Canal joins at the junction, and a lot of boaters stop overnight at Great Haywood. So if they all get off at roughly the same time, and Colwich Lock is only 20 minutes away….Long queues are not unknown…

Colwich Lock. Not another boat in sight.
A few minutes before we stopped, we passed evidence of tree cutting on the towpath. No-one was around, however. A little later the work crew walked past us on the way back to work, so I ambled up to ask them about the wood. “Take as much as you want” was the reply, so I did…

Two or three weeks of free fuel, there. And it has a low carbon footprint!

It’s quiet here at this time of year. There’s a good view of Shugborough Hall across the park.

Shugborough Hall.
Before we moved off yesterday morning I tried, unsuccessfully, to confirm my entry in the Great Manchester Run, the 10k I do every year in the city centre. But I kept getting an error message. So I tried again late last night, and was well annoyed to get a message saying that entry to the race has now closed, with all available places taken up.
I was stamping about a bit, I've competed in that race for the last 4 years! But, having slept on it, this morning I realised that there could be a silver lining. Instead of having to be in the Manchester area in May, thereby meaning that at least the first half of the summer would be spent in the north, we are now no longer tied. There's a 10k in Oxford in May.... Hmmmm, sounds like an idea. Then maybe on to the Thames.....

Locks 1, miles 2½

A lock-free day

Had a bit of a surprise this morning when I pulled back the curtains. The forecast had suggested a frost, but not enough to freeze the canal again!

A chilly start
It wasn’t very thick though, and by the time 3 boats had gone past, it was mostly gone. It was pretty misty when it took Meg out on her morning walk.

Across the River Trent
We walked to Mavesyn Ridware and back, odd name but a pretty village nonetheless.

In Mavesyn Ridware

There are 3 other Ridwares in the area. Pipe, Hill, and Hamstell. “Ridware” is Saxon for “dwellers by the ford” (ritu – ford, waru – dwellers), and the prefixes most likely relate to the major land owning families in each parish. Mavesyn comes from the Norman Malveisin family.

We set off soon after 11:00, and had a steady cruise to Rugeley, where we pulled over for an hour to do a bit of shopping at the local Morrisons. On the way we filled the water tank just after Armitage Tunnel. This started out as a tunnel, then was opened out into a cutting in 1971, and finally, when the A513 was widened, is almost back to being a tunnel again! Whatever you call it, there’s only enough width for one boat, so it’s wise to send someone ahead to make sure the way is clear. That’d be me, then!

Armitage Tunnel/Cutting.

We left Rugeley over the River Trent just after the sharp turn at Brindley Bank.

Over the Trent again. We’d provisionally intended to get to Great Haywood today, but decided to stop sooner rather than carry on till dusk. So we pulled in just east of Taft Bridge, number 69.

Pulling in for the night
I mentioned yesterday the power station’s “micro climate”. It was certainly in evidence today. Either side of the town it was quite pleasant hazy sunshine, but once we passed the plant it was cold, damp and misty until we were out the other side.

Locks 0, miles 6.

A weekend at Shadehouse and a weather window to Handsacre.

We spent the weekend at Shadehouse, and then, with the weather being wet and blustery, we stayed yesterday as well.
We didn’t do so much; read a bit, watched TV a bit, took Meg for some long walks. I started running again last week and found it hard for a start, but did 5 miles at better than 8 minute miles this morning, so I’m back in the groove. I start my 10 week structured training plan next Monday, to get ready for the Liverpool ½ marathon at the end of March. I’m looking to get down to nearer 1:35:00 this year.

Today dawned fine and dry, the rain having blown over during the night. We got away around 11:00, after saying goodbye to Tony and Jacqui on Timewarp. I expect we’ll next see them around here again next year, unless we get down onto the Thames this summer. They’ve got seasonal lock-keepers jobs on the river, Tony looking after Marlow, and Jacqui doing Fleet. She said Fleet, but I guess she meant Temple, about a mile upstream. Better than working for a living! They'll not be all that far from Medmenham Abbey, where the Sir Francis Dashwood's Hellfire Club used to meet.

Away from Shadehouse VM
Just a gentle couple of hours today. The one and only lock was the pleasantly situated Woodend Lock, about 15 minutes from Shadehouse and at, would you believe, the end of the (Ravenshaw) Wood!

Woodend Lock
The section to Handsacre is rural, mainly wooded with arable fields through the trees.

Ravenshaw Wood. I bet the rhododendrons are a picture in the spring.
Coming into Handsacre you get a good view of Rugeley Power Station, with it’s own micro-climate.
We pulled over at around 13:15. The forecast said showers for this afternoon, and it wasn’t wrong. It’s just started to chuck it down. Still, I'm inside, doing this. :-)

If you look to the right you’ll see a new counter “ UK Waterways Sites” This, suggested by Andrew Denny of Granny Buttons fame, and implemented by Tony Blews, is rather more appropriate than the US based one. Especially as 21 of the top 100 on the US site are UK canal specific!

Locks 1, miles 4

A bit of a thaw allows a short hop to Shadehouse…

The grocery and coal deliveries arrived at the same time on Wednesday. So we quickly offloaded the fuel onto the bank, then pulled the Tesco van up and unloaded that. You’re not supposed to block the access road up to The Swan and the caravan site, so we didn’t want to hang about.

Frozen Fradley


Had a good long walk with Meg yesterday morning, up the locks, around Fradley Wood and past the Curborough sprint motor racing track.

Curborough Sprint Track. Quiet this time of year….
A few years ago I was a member of the Reliant Scimitar and Sabre Owners Club. The RSSOC used to hire this course for the weekend once a year to let members loose with their cars. I didn’t get to go, having restored my 3 litre Scimitar, I couldn’t stand to see it damaged.

1972 Reliant Scimitar GTEI also sold 2 more “classics” when we moved aboard. The one on the left is a 1962 Riley 1.5, and the other was my pride and joy, a 1956 Riley Pathfinder. Both were restored from scratch.
We’d spent yesterday watching the ice slowly melting as the weather warms up, so today we decided to push on up to above Shadehouse Lock for the weekend. Problem was, we were facing the wrong way. 2 choices. Either down to Alrewas to wind (turn around), and come back. 4 locks and a couple of miles each way. Or, reverse back to the sanitary station for water and “disposals”, then continue, in reverse, up Junction Lock to turn at the junction. I wanted to go for option 2, but Mags wasn’t too keen. She would be the one on the boat after all. But I talked her round.

So off we toddled 300 yards backwards to get water, then another 200 yards to the lock. It wasn’t as daunting as Mags had expected, just a bit different.

Filling Up
Then backwards up Junction Lock
We got a few strange looks as Mags came out of the lock!
After turning around to face “uphill”, we went up Middle and Shadehouse Locks in a more conventional manner, and moored just above the last lock.


A bit tight near The Swan
Moored at Shadehouse.
It’s a pleasant spot, with reasonable TV reception at this time of year. It’s worse in the summer when the trees are in leaf!
I was preparing to take Meg for a walk this evening when I saw a boat coming up the lock. As it got nearer I realised it was Amy on Black Bryony. Quite a surprise, she’d originally planned to winter on the Leicester Line, but changed her mind and came up the Coventry instead. Like us, she’d been frozen in for a while, nearer Fazeley Junction. Meg soon picked up her acquaintance with Dillon, Amy’s Border Collie.

Also up here are Tony and Jacqui, on Timewarp, with their German Shepherd Callie. We met then around this time last year, here at Fradley.

Locks 3, miles 1

I should learn to keep my mouth shut!

What did I say at the end of yesterday’s post? Oh yes -

“So as long as it doesn’t freeze too hard tonight, we might have an easier run the last 2½ miles to Fradley”

Well, for a start, I’d miscounted. It was 3½ miles. And last night was, according to the evening weather forecast, the coldest of the winter so far. Down to –7 or -8°! So much for “an easier run”!

Before we set off, I used the long shaft to break ice alongside the boat, then went in to thaw out for 5 minutes. By the time I’d got the stiff mooring lines untied, it had frozen over again!
So I shuffled to and fro for a bit, till there was enough room to pull out.

Ready to go, or so I thought.
Although it was a bright sunny morning, it made little impression on the frost, but at least lifted the spirits.

The going was hardest on the wide stretch of moorings next to Streethay Wharf. At one point, I had to back off and try to get into a thinner area. I reckon it was at least 2” thick.

We pushed on, some bits worse than others, but none ice-free, arriving at Fradley Junction at around 13:30, having been on the move for over 2 hours.

Even the water at the junction, and lower down below Junction Lock, had a film of ice, but nothing like as bad as further back on the Coventry.
I was glad to pull in and tie up on the visitor moorings alongside the nature reserve. We’re staying here tomorrow, with solid fuel and groceries due to be delivered.

The blacking on most of the length of the waterline has been stripped off. I’ll leave it till the spring now, then I’ll find somewhere, probably on a river, where I can run her aground to expose and repaint as needed.

Locks 1, miles 3½

Cold Snap makes for Crunchy Cruising….

After spending the weekend frozen in, we decided we really must move today, even though the ice is still quite thick.

There have been 1 or 2 boats about, crunching through the ice, and on Saturday 2 went past, heading north, at gone 7 o’clock!

Ice Breakers
Even though it is cold, it’s fine and dry, so I refitted a couple of clips on the cratch board, and then mounted and wired in my Christmas present from Mags.

Beep, Beep!
Anyway, we set off today at 10:00, thinking, quite rightly, that it would be a slow trip. We need to turn around to get back to Fradley, with coal and grocery deliveries due on Wednesday, and the next winding hole is at Bonehill Bridge, 5½ miles away. That’s a 5 hour cruise just to get back to where we started, in these conditions.

Crunching away from Whittington.
I’d not noticed it before, but there’s an “unofficial” winding hole just south of Tamhorn Farm Bridge, and, with a lot of to-ing and fro-ing to break up the ice, with Mags on the tiller and me on the bank hauling the stern around, we finished up facing the way we’d come. ½ an hour’s work had saved us 2½ miles of ice breaking.

So then it was back up through Whittington, past our weekend mooring, then onto virgin ice again. We pushed on for another ¾ mile or so, but it was hard work on the tiller, and the noise was getting on my nerves, so we pulled in just before Bridge 85.

The ducks in Whittington were out and about as normal, seemingly undetered by the change in their normal habitat.

Jesus Christ impressions
Ooh, Ooh, it’s cold!
Just outside of the village there’s a derelict, half sunk and sticking out into the channel.
It will have been someone’s pride and joy, at some time.

We had another 3 boats pass us this afternoon, heading south. So as long as it doesn’t freeze too hard tonight, we might have an easier run the last 2½ miles to Fradley.

We don't seem to have lost too much paint....

We've got a neighbour, tonight. He's so fat, he looks like he's been inflated with a bike pump!
Locks 0, miles 5